ALPINE ELF ENDURANCE TEAM PUT TO THE TEST IN PORTIMÃO

From Friday, the team and its six driversresumed the in-depth work begun during the winter tests on the same circuit.After three sessions cut short by contact between the n°94 Peugeot and the n°35Alpine A470, the crews moved on to qualifying with the LMP2 category demonstratingagain all its competitiveness with the field covered by just over asecond. Despite their best efforts, and a lack of traction on their second setof tyres, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere had to settle for tenth andeleventh place.

At midday on Sunday, FIA CEO Natalie Robyn hadthe honour of getting the race underway. Making the most of the two formationlaps to warm up his tyres, Julien Canal made a superb start to move up twoplaces to ninth ahead of teammate Memo Rojas. Diligent during their required drivingtime, the Silver drivers carried out their double-stints on a track where they quicklyhad to deal with traffic before Charles Milesi and André Negrão took over.

With new tyres, the two men increased the paceto close the gap on their rivals and battle with the WRTs despite a top speeddeficit and a race tremendously unfavourable to strategic shifts. Shortlybefore the midway point, the team decided to install a new rear end on the n°36as Matthieu Vaxiviere and Olli Caldwell headed out on track. After two stints,Matthieu Vaxiviere handed over to Charles Milesi, while Olli Caldwell put in atriple-stint to keep lowering his lap times and stay in contention.

The action intensified at the beginning of thefinal hour with the only safety period of the race. The incident with the n°4Vanwall allowed the n°36 Alpine to close ground before the final sprint, andCharles Milesi took advantage to surprise the n°28 JOTA. After his last pitstop, the French driver continued his push to overtake the n°34 Inter EuropolCompétition with 12 minutes remaining to secure ninth place, just over 30seconds off the podium. Meanwhile, André Negrão finished just outside the topten.

By finishing ninth and eleventh, the A-arrowedbrand scored its second consecutive double entry in the points. However, theteam remains determined to take a step forward at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours ofSpa-Francorchamps. This round, which will take place on 29 April, will be ofthe utmost importance as the final dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

QUOTES

André Negrão

"It was a tough raceas we were off the pace compared to the category leaders. There has been someprogress since Sebring, but we have to keep working to close the gap. Despitethe challenges, we made it to the finish and that will be useful as wecollected a lot of data which we will analyse in detail to be in a much better shapein a fortnight at Spa."

Olli Caldwell

“It was a tough race for us, but I think we can also take some positivesaway. I had a good battle for position during my first stint and I began tomake some ground. It’s just a shame we couldn’t battle more towards the end.Looking forward to Spa, hopefully we can pull out some more pace in qualifyingto put us in a good position to fight in the race. After we were forced toretire in Sebring, this is a step forward and we’ll be working hard to continuethat as the season progresses.”

Memo Rojas

"Even though theresult does not meet our target, we were more competitive than at Sebring. Wemanaged to reduce the gap to the leaders, but we are aware that we still have alot of work to race at the front. Despite the error-free work of the team, therace conditions did not allow us to exploit our strengths, such as strategy,but we will work harder than ever together to get closer to the top five."

Matthieu Vaxiviere

"Obviously, the resultis frustrating because we didn't really recover any ground as the weekend wenton. It was quite difficult for me to get all the grip out of the car inqualifying, and this race didn't offer any real opportunities to try anything.We will all work as a team to move on and return to positions closer to ourgoals as soon as possible."

Charles Milesi

"It was a bit of afrustrating Sunday. After encouraging practice sessions, the temperatures roseand qualifying was not ideal. We also expected a less difficult start to therace, especially in my first two stints. We made some adjustments by changingthe rear block, which resulted in better performance, but overtaking in thefield remains incredibly difficult on this track. We know what areas we need tofocus on, but I also remember the positive points of this race withoutincident. It's up to us to do better in Spa!"

Julien Canal

"We arrived atPortimão with high hopes after missing out on the podium at Sebring. We startedwith the same base set-up, but maybe we didn't adapt it enough to this atypicalcircuit. We had to deal with some unforeseen reactions from the car, but wewill do everything we can as a team to improve. This result is far from ourobjectives, but I am confident we can bounce back by working hard during thisshort period before Spa. We will come back stronger, we have the potential todo so."

Philippe Sinault, AlpineElf Endurance Team Principal

"It was not an easyweek on a track we had worked well during winter testing. Once we went ontrack, we had to deal with inconsistent balance in both our prototypes. Thedrivers managed to get by on one lap during extremely close qualifying, but weknew this would expose us on the long stints. We were in the pack in the race,battling with some category leaders and a crew that finished on the podium, butwe were missing that little extra to make the difference. We took a gamble bychanging the rear-end block to have a better aerodynamic set-up and capitaliseon it in case of a neutralisation. The safety car came out quite late - toolate - as the gaps were already too big. Overall, we are a few tenths of asecond off the pace, which is too much in this LMP2 category where everythingcomes down to details. We're not satisfied with this result, but we know whatwe have to work on, and we remain determined for Spa."

CLASSIFICATIONS

6 Hours of Portimão – LMP2

1. United Autosports n°23 215 laps

2. United Autosports n°22 +0.684s

3. Team WRT n°41 +5.272s

9. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°36 +37.835s

11. Alpine Elf EnduranceTeam n°35 + 1 lap

FIA Endurance LMP2 Trophy

1. United Autosports n°22 – 56 points

2. Prema Racing n°63 – 40 points

3. Team WRT n°41 – 33 points

9. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°36 – 10 points

11. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°35 – 1 point

ABOUT ALPINE

Founded in 1955 by Jean Rédélé, the brand has set itself apart with itsFrench-style sports cars. In 2018, the brand presented the new A110, a sportscar faithful to Alpine's timeless principles of compactness, lightness, agilityand driving pleasure. The Alpine Business Unit was created in 2021 and thusbecame the brand dedicated to innovative, authentic, exclusive sportscars ofthe Renault Group, benefiting from the heritage and craftsmanship of itshistoric plant in Dieppe and the Alpine Racing and Alpine Cars teamsengineering mastery.