Alpine Endurance Team scored its first podium of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season in Austin, where the #35 Alpine A424 finished third at Lone Star Le Mans. The sister #36 car recovered from twelfth in the closing hour to take fifth, giving the French squad its strongest combined result since the A424 programme started. The double top-five haul brought 25 points in the Manufacturers’ Championship ahead of the 6 Hours of Fuji later this month.

Alpine arrived at the Circuit of the Americas with a clear target — two cars inside the top five — and left Texas having met it, with a podium on top. In front of a crowd the team puts at 69,204 spectators, the #35 Alpine A424 came home third and the #36 fifth in the six-hour Lone Star Le Mans race.

A strong Saturday sets up the race

Charles Milesi and Victor Martins had already shown the A424’s pace in qualifying, placing the #35 third and the #36 sixth. Martins’s 1:52.074 in Hypercar qualifying was the second-fastest lap set across the entire event.

Ferdinand Habsburg took the start in the #35, while Frédéric Makowiecki opened the race in the #36. A brief shower before the start prompted extra formation laps, but the track dried quickly. Both Alpines held station in the leading group through the early Full Course Yellow periods, running fourth and fifth after the opening hour.

Diverging strategies through the middle stint

The two crews’ races then split. At the two-hour mark the #36 was fifth while the #35 had dropped to fifteenth straight after its second stop, and the car also picked up a five-second penalty for a pit-lane procedure. Its underlying pace told: Milesi had it back up to second by half-distance, with the #36 still fifth.

Jules Gounon relieved Makowiecki in the #36 and António Félix da Costa took over the #35 from Milesi. Energy management and consistent race pace kept both cars in the mix, and after the first Safety Car period the pair ran third and fourth at the four-hour point.

A late split in fortunes

Martins climbed into the #36 and Milesi returned to the #35 for the run to the flag. A sequence of late neutralisations then divided the two crews: with an hour left the #35 was second, while the timing of the final Virtual Safety Car relative to the #36’s sixth stop had dropped that car to twelfth.

Martins hauled back seven positions in a hard final stint to finish fifth. Milesi, meanwhile, stayed in the fight at the front and set the second-fastest lap of the race, crossing the line second on the road before the five-second pit-lane penalty demoted the #35 to third in the classification behind the winning #50 Ferrari AF Corse.

“This is my first podium with Alpine and my first in Hypercar, so it is a special result. We were in the fight throughout and, although the neutralisations affected our strategy, finishing on the podium gives us strong momentum for the final three races.” — António Félix da Costa

Team Principal Philippe Sinault called it the team’s best combined result and first podium of the season, saying it rewards the whole team and confirms the competitiveness of the package. Chief Engineer Yann Paranthoën said Alpine leaves Austin with an important points haul and lessons that should sharpen its execution at the next round.

What it means for the championship

The result lifts Alpine to fifth in the Hypercar Manufacturers’ standings on 66 points, still a distance behind leader Toyota on 140. In the drivers’ table, the Félix da Costa / Habsburg / Milesi crew sits ninth on 44 points, with Gounon / Makowiecki / Martins sixteenth on 4 points. With three rounds left, a first podium at this stage is more about confirming pace than mounting a title challenge — but after a season in which the A424 has often looked quick without converting, Austin is the first weekend where the results matched the speed.

Facts: Alpine at Lone Star Le Mans

  • Race: Lone Star Le Mans, Circuit of the Americas, six hours
  • Result: #35 Alpine A424 third, #36 Alpine A424 fifth
  • Winner: Ferrari AF Corse #50
  • Points scored: 25 in the Manufacturers’ Championship
  • #35 crew: António Félix da Costa, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi
  • #36 crew: Jules Gounon, Frédéric Makowiecki, Victor Martins
  • Qualifying: #35 third, #36 sixth; Martins 1:52.074
  • Attendance: 69,204 spectators

Alpine’s next outing is the 6 Hours of Fuji, the sixth of eight rounds in the FIA World Endurance Championship, from 25 to 27 September.

Source: media.alpinecars.com