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Alpine A470 at the 6 hours of Fuji

174 views · Published 16 October 2017 · 9:31 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: The Wheel Network · 2017 · Autos & Vehicles

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* Signatech Alpine Matmut finished second in the LMP2 class at the 6 Hours of Fuji.
* Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Gustavo Menezes were unable to convert their domination into a deserved win, with the race significantly disrupted by the weather conditions.
* Despite this frustrating situation, the no.36 crew closed the gap to the championship leader with two races left to go.

The teams began their Japanese weekend in typical conditions for this time of year, with rainy weather during free practice. Tasked with qualifying the no.36 Alpine A470 on a wet track, Nicolas Lapierre and André Negrão set the fourth best combined time.

It was still raining on Sunday at the start of the 6 Hours of Fuji. After a quarter of an hour spent behind the safety car, the race got underway for real. At the first corner, Nelson Piquet (no.13) spun in front of Nicolas Lapierre, who only just managed to avoid him. With one lap gone, the Alpine was running in fifth place in the LMP2 category.

Very comfortable despite the conditions, Nicolas began a superb fightback, moving past James Rossiter (no.26), Oliver Jarvis (no.38) and Alex Brundle (no.37) successively. He then closed up on Bruno Senna (no.31), but the safety car came back out due to the fog that had engulfed the Japanese track. With an hour of the race completed, Nicolas and his rivals took advantage of the safety car period to come into the pits for their first stop.

With conditions not improving, the red flag was shown after 1 hr 20 mins of the race. At this point, the no.36 Alpine was running in third position in the LMP2 class. After a half-hour interruption – during which the six-hour race clock continued to count down – racing resumed and Nicolas Lapierre wasted no time in reclaiming second place. Regularly improving the fastest race lap, the Alpine driver gradually closed on the leaders.

During another safety car period, Nicolas handed over driving duties to André Negrão. Once the Brazilian was in the car, the "SC" boards were shown several more times, so that the marshals could remove the cars that had gone off the track. Thanks to an aggressive strategy, involving pitting before the other leading contenders, the Signatech Alpine Matmut moved into the lead on the 85th lap.

Following a sixth safety car period, the 6 Hours of Fuji got underway again with just over two hours of the race left. André Negrão set off in pursuit of Ho-Pin Tung (no.38), eventually managing to reclaim second place with a fantastic overtaking move. As he closed in on the leader, the race was once again red-flagged due to the fog.

Following a very long wait, race control was preparing to release the field onto the track for the final ten minutes, but the lack of visibility put paid to these vague hopes and the cars returned to parc ferme without even taking the chequered flag.

The no.36 crew, which would in all likelihood have benefited from its strategy of not coming to the pits again before the end, "only" finished as runners-up. Although he didn't get on track in the Alpine A470, Gustavo Menezes made sure he joined in the podium celebrations, soaking his overalls in champagne!

In the overall standings, Signatech Alpine Matmut made up three points on the leader and remains in the title race. After what was a frustrating race for much of the field, the FIA WEC will be back in three weeks' time for the penultimate round of the season, held at the Shanghai International Circuit (5 November).

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