– In the second free practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly threw his Alpine into the tire stack and lost his rear wing. His accident caused the 30-year-old to bring out the second red flag of the session.
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“I need to understand what happened in FP2,” Gasly explained on Friday. “I just had a big oversteer and lost the car.”
In turn 13, the Alpine driver briefly lost the rear, which caused him to end up in the gravel at the exit of Fagnes. Here he collided with the track boundary and then spun back onto the track. However, Gasly’s A526 was severely damaged and his session was consequently over.
“It just took too long to correct [the oversteer],” said Gasly. “And at the moment it was corrected, I was already off the track and couldn’t get back.”
“He had a brief oversteer,” explained Managing Director Steve Nielsen. “Unfortunately, this caused him to go onto the curb, which threw him into the track boundary. That was a small mistake that wouldn’t have been [penalized] on many other tracks.”
“But here,” Nielsen continued, “you get penalized for that in some places, and that’s exactly what happened. These things happen.”
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Nevertheless, Gasly is firmly confident that he will be able to participate in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps: “I’m sure the guys will get it back together for tomorrow,” he said. “And we will focus on getting into the top 10 tomorrow.”
Despite his mishap, Gasly describes the two free practice sessions for Alpine as extremely constructive. While P15 and P17 were recorded in FP1, they finished P7 and P18 in FP2. According to Gasly, different parts were tested in both sessions.
F1: Belgian Grand Prix (Spa) 2026
Franco Colapinto, in particular, is very optimistic after his seventh place: “[I am] more satisfied than at previous weekends and races,” he said. “We found some performance this weekend, and I think the cooler temperatures and lower cornering speeds on the track suit us.”
“Of course, we still need to find performance,” said Colapinto. “But it’s a good sign to be ahead of the Racing Bulls. That hasn’t happened for quite a while, so it was a pretty good day.”
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Nielsen emphasizes that some progress was made between FP1 and FP2. Whether this momentum can be maintained overnight is another question.
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