22/08/2021
NEWS STORY
Two-time world champion, and two-time Le Mans winner, Fernando Alonso was back at the French circuit to drive a demonstration lap in an F1 car ahead of the 24-hour race.
The Spaniard was joined by Alpine teammate, Esteban Ocon, winner of the recent Hungarian Grand Prix.
Before the start of the iconic endurance race, five Alpine A110S road cars, including two driven by Nicolas Longuet (Alpine eSports Team) and Lilou Wadoux (Alpine Elf Europa Cup), exited the pit lane. A few moments later, the A110 Rally entrusted to the French two-wheel-drive Champion and the FIA R-GT class winner on the 2021 Monte-Carlo Rally Manu Guigou joined them.
Ocon subsequently followed in an A110 GT4, the car that won the 2018 GT4 International Cup before enjoying more success across Europe, while Pierre Thiriet, who with Alpine Elf Matmut Endurance Team drivers Andre Negrao and Nicolas Lapierre, twice won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category, then took to the track in the A470 LMP2 prototype that won its class title in the 2018-2019 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The highlight however had to be the appearance of Alonso, marking his return to the iconic track for the first time since his 2019 win with Toyota, in an Alpine F1 car – actually the 2018 Renault - sporting the colours of the A521.
The Spanish driver made history in completing the first lap of an F1 car on the Circuit de la Sarthe and its legendary corners: from Tertre Rouge to Arnage through the Mulsanne Straight and Indianapolis corner...
After the Arnage corner, the champions gathered under the Alpine banner to complete the lap in formation in front of the packed start-finish grandstands for a group photo celebrating Alpine's involvement in several leading disciplines in the presence of Alpine CEO, Laurent Rossi and ACO President, Pierre Fillon.
A tribute to the late Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, who with Didier Pironi and the Alpine A442B won the 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans, was then organised by the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, just minutes before the start of the race.
F1 raced at 1967, when Jack Brabham won the French Grand Prix, albeit on the Bugatti road course.