Pierre Gasly crashed his Alpine into the track barriers shortly before the end of the second free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix
In the second free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly crashed his Alpine into the tire barrier and lost his rear wing. The 30-year-old’s accident caused the second red flag of the session.
“I need to understand what happened in FP2,” Gasly explained on Friday. “I just had a lot of oversteer and lost the car.”
At Turn 13, the Alpine driver briefly lost the rear end, causing him to end up in the gravel at the exit of Fagnes. There, he collided with the track barriers and subsequently spun back onto the track. However, Gasly’s A526 was severely damaged, and his session was over as a result.
“It just took too long to correct [the oversteer],” said Gasly. “And by the time I’d corrected it, I was already off the track and couldn’t get back on.”
“He had a brief bout of oversteer,” explained Managing Director Steve Nielsen. “Unfortunately, that caused him to hit the curb, which sent him into the track barrier. It was a small mistake that wouldn’t have been penalized on many other tracks.”
“But here,” Nielsen said, “you get penalized for that in certain spots, and that’s exactly what happened. These things happen.”
Nevertheless, Gasly is absolutely confident he’ll be able to participate in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps: “I’m sure the guys will get it sorted out again for tomorrow,” he said. “And we’ll focus on finishing in the top 10 tomorrow.”
Despite his misfortune, Gasly described the two free practice sessions for Alpine as extremely constructive. While the team recorded P15 and P17 in FP1, they finished P7 and P18 in FP2. According to Gasly, the team tested different parts in both sessions.
Franco Colapinto, in particular, is extremely optimistic after his seventh-place finish: “[I’m] more satisfied than I’ve been in recent weekends and races,” he said. “We’ve found some performance this weekend, and I think the cooler temperatures and lower cornering speeds on the track work in our favor.”
“Of course, we still need to find more performance,” Colapinto said. “But it’s a good sign to be ahead of the Racing Bulls. It’s been quite a while since that happened, so it was definitely a good day.”
Nielsen emphasized that they made some progress between FT1 and FT2. Whether they’ll be able to maintain this momentum overnight is another question.
