ALPINE CLAIMS A HISTORIC POLE POSITION AND ANOTHER PODIUM IN PORTUGAL

Thanks to the information gatheredin Belgium and the meticulous work carried out in the Bourges workshops, theteam fine-tuned the A480 to adapt to the new balance of performance in forcefrom the beginning of free practice. Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão andMatthieu Vaxiviere immediately showed their ability to dominate the Portuguesetrack while progressively lowering the reference time: 1:33.781s in FP1, 1:32.074sin FP2, and 1:31.652s in FP3.

The team was optimistic forqualifying and Mathieu Vaxiviere built on this momentum by getting on with thejob in the ten-minute session. With a lap of 1:30.364s, the Frenchman tookAlpine’s first overall pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championshipand the first for a prototype officially entered by the brand since the 1977 LeMans 24 Hours.

Nicolas Lapierre started theeight-hour race under sunny skies on Sunday. After a perfect start, he quicklydistanced himself from the chasing pack by being efficient and incisive intraffic despite a radio problem. Nicolas Lapierre was the first of the leadersto stop and was back in the lead at the end of hour one before André Negrão,and Matthieu Vaxiviere put in double stints.

In first place at the end of eachof the opening four hours, the A480 led at mid-distance before Nicolas Lapierrewent back out behind the Toyotas. While the A480 had to stop more often than thecompetition, the efforts of the three drivers - successively the fastest in therace – paid off twenty minutes later with a safety car intervention thatregrouped the three contenders for the win.

Nicolas Lapierre began chasing downthe Toyotas at the restart and quickly got past Kazuki Nakajima with a superbovertake at turn one. The Frenchman then reeled in and wasabout to overtake Kamui Kobayashi as he eventually pit in to double his stint. Usingdifferent strategies, the three crews took turns leading while playing areal game of chess. Unfortunately, a full course yellow shortly after theteam's final pit stop gave the leaders the necessary margin to control the endof the race.

André Negrão was behind the wheelfor the final sprint and sealed the podium in the A480, just over a minutebehind the winners, despite two more stops than the winning trio and one morethan the runners-up. However, this result consolidates second place for theAlpine Elf Matmut Endurance Team in the general classification.

The next meeting of the season willtake the A480 and its three drivers to Italy for round three of the FIA WorldEndurance Championship: the 6 Hours of Monza (16-18 July).

QUOTES

PhilippeSinault, Team Principal Alpine Elf Matmut Endurance Team

"It was a great achievement to run a clean racein this eight-hour event. We did not encounter any problems or make anymistakes on this physically and technically demanding track, as the minor scarewith the brakes showed. The safety car allowed us to get back in contention andtake the lead before attacking hard to push our rivals to use more fuel. Thefull-course yellow may have cost us second place, and it's a bit frustratingnot to have been able to compete for the win on a regular basis. The balance ofperformance was extremely well managed on the performance side. However, thereare still some details to be finetuned in this difficult exercise that we arestill discovering. We need to analyse all our data to see where we can improve,but also all the leverages available for the sporting authorities. We have somework to do before Monza!”

NicolasLapierre:

"The team had another great weekend with a greatcar, but it was a bit frustrating to only finish third. The A480 ran strong, wedid a better job than our rivals with tyre management and we had some greatbattles on track. The traffic was not easy to manage with the blind corners,but it was great fun to be in Portimão. Monza will have differentcharacteristics, much closer to Le Mans, and we will work hard to finish higherup the order."

AndréNegrão:

"The beginning of the race was really enjoyable,but we soon realised that we were in for an uphill battle for victory given thegap between our stints and theirs. It was difficult, but that’s racing, and we didas best we could right up to the full course yellow took away our chances with 30minutes to go. Despite the result, I am happy because the team got valuabledata and did a perfect job this weekend."

MatthieuVaxiviere:

"We can take a lot of positives from our poleposition, which was a reward for all the hard work the team has done. We areworking very hard, so this is a performance that motivates us even more for thefuture. But I think we are all a bit disappointed with the race result. We hadanother clean run, and we gave absolutely everything we had, but it was notenough for reasons beyond our control. We will continue to fight!"

CLASSIFICATION

8 Hoursof Portimão

1. Toyota Gazoo Racing n°8 – 300 laps

2. Toyota Gazoo Racing n°7 +1.800s

3. Alpine Elf Matmut Endurance Team n°36 +1:08.597s

4. JOTA n°38 + 4 laps

5. JOTA n°28 + 4 laps

FIA WorldEndurance Championship Hypercar

1. Toyota Gazoo Racing – 64 points

2. Alpine Elf MatmutEndurance Team – 42 points

3. Glickenhaus Racing – 1 point

About Alpine

Founded in 1955 by Jean Rédélé, the brand has setitself apart with its French-style sports car.In2018, the brand presented the new A110, a sports car faithful to Alpine’stimeless principles of compactness, lightness, agility and driving pleasure.The Alpine business unit is created in2021. It thus became the brand dedicated to innovative, authentic, exclusivesportscars of Renault Group, benefiting from the heritage and craftsmanship ofits historical plant in Dieppe, as well as the engineering mastery from theAlpine Racing and Alpine Cars teams.

Press Contacts