ALPINE ESPORTS STARTS ITS F1 SEASON AND COLLIN SPORK SETS THE FASTEST LAP IN LE MANS 8 HOURS OF BAHRAIN

Alpine Esports had anaction-packed week as the team participated in both the kick of the F1 EsportsSeries 2022 and the Le Mans Virtual Series. Over five days, Alpine Esportscompeted in a total of four races and saw the team lay the foundation for ahighly anticipated season.

F1 ESPORTS SERIES

After three nail-biting races in the first event for the F1Esports Series, Alpine Esports landed in 9th place in the team standings with 5points. The first event in the F1 Esports Series proved to be a learningexperience for the Alpine Esports team.

During the first round in Bahrain, Patrik Sipos saw a strong startbefore receiving a 5-second penalty for entering the pitlane too quickly.Unfortunately, this blunder put him out of points contention, resulting infinishing him in 18th place. Filip Prešnadjer drove without issue, finishing in11th place.

The second round took place in Imola. After narrowly avoiding acrash with reigning double world champion Jarno Opmeer, Patrik and Filipqualified in 17th and 13th place, respectively. A mistake from Patrik resultedin a car spin and a broken front wing, as a result, he finished in 18th place,and Filip finished in 15th place.

Round 3, in Great Britain, saw the debut of 16-year-old driverLuke Smith, qualifying in 7th place, with Patrik qualifying in 8th place - bothdrivers qualified in Q3. After an impressive race, Luke finished in 10th place,earning his first point of the series! Patrik finished in 8th place.

Driver Luke Smith said “I’m pleased with myperformance in the qualifiers, reaching Q3 and competing against drivers ofthis calibre is an incredible experience – I gave everything I had during therace. I lacked rhythm during the race, this is something I will improve for thenext event. Overall, I’m satisfied with my performance, my first point for myfirst race! We are now getting focused on the second event.”

Driver Patrik Sipos added “In general, I thinkwe can get some positivity from this event. We knew that we may have somedifficulties, finally, less important than expected. I made some mistakes, Iwill try to correct that for the next event, Silverstone showed us that we havethe potential.”

Alpine Esports Team Principal Richard Arnaudadded “As expected, this season of F1 Esports is the most competitive seasonever. With a revamped and young squad, we knew we would experience some earlymistakes. The positive is that we can play for points in each race with our 3drivers. We must give the team time to adapt. We know what we must improve onfor the drivers and the car setup. We cannot wait for the second event to fightit out and continue to grow and progress together!”

LE MANS VIRTUALSERIES

Le Mans Virtual Series’ 8 Hours of Bahrain race saw an impressiveperformance from the Alpine Esports team. After heart-wrenching technicalissues, Alpine Esports placed 17th in the race, earning 1 point.

Tom Lartilleux began the endurance race in 7th position beforeRory Macduff took over and fought for a position at the top. For the finalattack, Collin Spork took the wheel however uncontrollable technical issuesbegan to arise. Collin did set the fastest lap in the LMP category with anastonishing lap time of 1:42.606.

Driver Collin Spork said “Of course, I amdisappointed with the result, the race started perfectly, and we were going tofinish in the top 5. Despite that, we showed that we had a great pace and a lotof potential. We will come back stronger to rise to the top of theleaderboard.”

Alpine Esports Race Director Robin Bondonadded “After a good qualifying round and a solid start, we were unfortunatelyaffected by technical problems. It’s a great shame as we were in the battle forfourth place. However, we shall retain the positives, it was the first racewith only one month of preparation from the group and were are alreadycompeting for top four. We believe in our potential, and we will come back inMonza more motivated than ever for the second race!”