Alpine On the podium: a mountain of emotions at the foot of Mount Fuji

It would be a lie to say that we saw this coming. Even if Alpine was coming off an excellent performance in Austin a fortnight earlier with its best result of the season (5th), seeing one of the LMDhs with the arrowed A finish on the podium seemed to be a milestone that was still far too high for the French manufacturer. In the very realistic atmosphere of the Japanese paddock, in the shadow of Mount Fuji and on the eve of the first free practice sessions, Philippe Sinault (team principal) refused to mention such an eventuality as a possible target for the weekend.

« If we set ourselves higher goals, like playing for the podium, every time we make a top 5 (after the one in Austin at the beginning of September. Editor’s note), we are going to do stupid things. We are not ready yet, we still have so many things to master. Despite everything, we are beginning to have a better knowledge of the tools that we have in