Alpine has had a hard time with Spa, they will race at Le Mans for the last time

Both cars were placed in the top five in the first practice on the wave circuit in the Ardennes of 7,004 km before Jules Gounon got to the first position behind the wheel of the number 36 car in the second training. After Charles Miles repeated this performance in the first part of the qualification of the following day, Alpine secured the second row of the starting grid, which meant the best starting position of A424 in the main category of Hypercar.

Ferdinand Habsburg and Frédéric Makowiecki kept these positions at the beginning of the six-hour race. At the end of the 14th round, Austria overtook Loïc Duval from second place.

Habsburg then immediately targeted Will Stevens at the front, but even though he quickly approached the rear of the Cadillac, he couldn't get ahead and soon after that he got hit by Ferrari Miguel Molina.

António Félix da Costa kept Alpine in the middle stage of the race on top and enjoyed a short lead time when he had built up a lead of almost 20 seconds before handing over the controls to Milesi, who lost to Dries Vanthoor and Antonia Fuoca from Ferrari after he was in trouble due to the operation of LMGT3 after the restart of the fifth hour.

Da Costa returned to the cockpit for the last stint, but after hours on the cold tires at the top of Raidillon less than half an hour before the end of the Portuguese Ace hit the guard, which required a return to the boxes for repairs and the crew with car number 35 could not get into the top five.

"It was a disappointment to end a promising weekend," regretted da Costa. "We were not the fastest car, but we left a good and solid race until the last 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I made a mistake, and I want to apologize to the entire Alpine Endurance team, who tirelessly works day and night to give us a competitive car. The responsibility lies solely with me, but we take positives and look forward to the 24 hours of Le Mans."

"I think, given our strong performance, we really deserved a better result," agreed Habsburg. "We had such a good first half of the race, we drove consistently in the leading group. Everything seemed perfect until things got more chaotic and we kept getting into difficult situations. It's frustrating, but there were still many positive things that we could take away from the weekend."

In the sister car A424 Makowiecki lost in the opening round of gas stops before his teammate Victor Martins got into a close fight with Théo Pourchaire, who kept the field position, and the world's acting champion James Calad.

Gounon subsequently had to go through an energy-saving stint to avoid another pit visit. The early stop of the race by virtual safety car shifted the Alpine trio # 36 to 11th place, one position before the # 35 car in 12th place.

"From the final position in Belgium we were of course disappointed," acknowledged the sports director of the Alpine Endurance Nicolas Lapierre team. "Especially after our strong performance in qualification. Given our pace this weekend, we expected a better outcome.

Several minor errors in the key moments proved costly and prevented us from fighting for leadership as the field narrowed towards the end of the race. That was frustrating, but it also stressed exactly where we need to improve before our main goal of this season - the 24-hour Le Mans race. "

For Alpine, this is the last start on La Sarthe's home circuit, as the car company confirmed the departure from the Hypercar category at the end of the season.