Alpine endured a busy Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Pierre Gasly walking away unhurt after a heavy crash in Free Practice 2 that left his car badly damaged. Team-mate Franco Colapinto provided the bright spot, ending the day seventh fastest as the Enstone squad ran an extensive cross-car test programme at Spa-Francorchamps.

Alpine’s Friday at Spa-Francorchamps swung between a promising performance and a heavy accident. The BWT Alpine Formula One Team spent both practice sessions comparing parts and set-ups across its two cars, before Pierre Gasly’s second session ended against the barriers.

A big impact for Gasly

Gasly lost the rear of his Alpine A526 in Free Practice 2 and ran wide at speed, hitting the wall with enough force to cause significant damage. The Frenchman was unhurt but faces an overnight rebuild before Saturday’s running.

“Firstly, I am glad I am okay after the incident in Free Practice 2. It was obviously a fairly big impact with the wall after the car snapped and I could not recover it fully. I am sure we’ll look into what happened as it was quite a big snap and resulted in a lot of damage to the car. As for the rest of the day, we had a decent day of testing in both sessions where we tried different parts across both cars. We’ll work now to learn and see what is good and what to take forwards for the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow, we’ll aim to put it all together and focus on reaching the top ten in Qualifying in the afternoon,” Gasly said.

Earlier, Gasly had also set a competitive lap that was deleted for a track limits infringement, leaving him 17th in Free Practice 1 and 18th in Free Practice 2 on the timesheets.

Colapinto ends the day seventh

Franco Colapinto delivered the team’s strongest showing, placing seventh in Free Practice 2 on the Soft tyre after finishing 15th in the morning session. The Argentine cautioned that some rivals may not have shown their true pace, but was encouraged by his own progress.

“Today was very productive and we finished the day in a pretty decent position on the timesheets in P7 in Free Practice 2, so I think we can be quite happy with our progress throughout both sessions. In Free Practice 1, our work consisted of trying various ideas across both cars to see where we need to develop and improve. I know some of our rivals might not have set representative lap-times, but we’ll focus on ourselves first and look to make improvements and find more performance. It seems there are some areas of the lap where we look quite strong, others where we are a little weak, but that is the nature of Spa with such different sectors and demands. Our target is to improve the car, find more pace and aim for the best possible result tomorrow,” Colapinto said.

Data first, then push

Managing Director Steve Nielsen said the team prioritised gathering comparison data in the first session before chasing lap time in the second.

“In the end, it has turned out to be a busy and eventful day in Belgium. In terms of the positives, it was good to do a lot of cross-car testing in Free Practice 1 where we were able to compare different parts and set-ups. We did not worry so much about chasing lap-time with all our focus going into providing enough data to accurately compare some strengths and weaknesses of our package. In Free Practice 2, with a clearer direction to follow, we began to push a little bit more and chase lap-time. Franco was well up there on his Soft run in P7 with Pierre also finding good improvements, other than the track limits infringement, which meant his best lap time was deleted. Pierre then had an incident where he had a snap and subsequently ran wide at decent speed with little chance to correct his course. Such is the nature of this track, and that corner, he had a big impact with the wall. Thankfully Pierre is fine and now we have a lot of work to do overnight to repair the car. We were changing some parts anyway, as is normal between Friday and a Saturday, so we are confident we can bounce back tomorrow and aim for a good result with both cars,” Nielsen said.

Friday in numbers

Between them the two Alpines completed 81 laps and 567 km on Friday, with Gasly running 38 laps (266 km) and Colapinto 43 laps (301 km). Both drivers worked through the C2, C3 and C4 tyre compounds.

Facts: Alpine at the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix, Friday

  • Free Practice 1: Gasly P17 (1:49.712); Colapinto P15 (1:49.403)
  • Free Practice 2: Gasly P18 (1:48.955); Colapinto P7 (1:47.147)
  • Laps: 81 total (Gasly 38, Colapinto 43)
  • Distance: 567 km (Gasly 266 km, Colapinto 301 km)
  • Tyres used: C2, C3 and C4 for both drivers

Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix takes place on Saturday afternoon.

Source: media.alpinecars.com