Alpine and Pierre Gasly have explained the French driver's crash at the end of Free Practice 2 at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
The incident occurred in the final stages of Friday’s second session. Gasly experienced a snap of oversteer at the exit of the Les Fagnes section, sending him into the gravel where he clipped the outside barrier before spinning into the wall.
“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,” said Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen. “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.”
Gasly confirmed the cause. “Just need to work on understanding what happened in FP2, just had a big snap, lost the car,” he said. “It was a huge snap. Just took a lot longer to recover and by the time it recovered I was already off the track.”
Despite the crash, Alpine had an encouraging day. Franco Colapinto finished seventh fastest in FP2, ahead of the next midfield runner by 0.147 seconds. The team also introduced an updated halo at the circuit.