Alpine explains Gasly's crash that red-flagged FP2

Alpine and Pierre Gasly have weighed in on the Frenchman’s crash at the end of Free Practice 2 ahead of Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.

The incident occurred in the final stages of Friday’s second session, as Gasly experienced a snap of oversteer at the exit of the Les Fagnes section. This narrowly sent him into the gravel and he clipped the outside barrier, which sent him into a spin and into the wall again.

“I think he had a small snap, I think it was Turn 14, which unfortunately put him on the kerb, which then put him into the barrier," managing director Steve Nielsen analysed. "A small mistake, which on a lot of other tracks would have been fine, but on this track you get punished for it in certain places, and that's what happened." 

"But it happens,” the Alpine boss added. 

“Just need to work on understanding what happened in FP2, just had a big snap, lost the car,” Gasly confirmed. “It was a huge snap. Just took a lot longer to recover and by the time it recovered I was already off the track and couldn't get back on track.”

This still was an encouraging day for Alpine performance-wise, after the team failed to reach Q3 at any session from the last three grands prix. Franco Colapinto was seventh-fastest in FP2, outpacing the second-quickest midfield car – Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls – by 0.147s.

“Happier than previous weekends and previous races,” the Argentine said. “We've found a little bit of performance this weekend, and also I think the cooler conditions, the lower-speed track in terms of corners, it also helped us and helped our limitations. Of course we need to find a bit more pace, but it is positive to be in front of the Racing Bulls, it’s been a long time we're not in front of them, so it's been a positive day.”

“Overall it's been a good day of testing, FP1, FP2, a lot of different parts tried across both cars,” Gasly added, as Alpine introduced an updated halo at the Belgian track. “So now we just need to weigh what's good, what's the better of all these settings and try to put it all together for tomorrow, but overall productive.”

But when you’re ahead on Friday, the risk is straying away from a decent set-up in your quest for perfection.

“The good news for us is we looked more competitive in FP2 than we did in FP1, although that was because largely we were testing in FP1,” Nielsen pointed out. “But the car seems to have a bit of pace again, which is good, we just need to make sure we don't do anything overnight to take it away.”