Starting on Friday the squad fine-tuned its setup, completing 282 laps in the three free practice sessions.

Paul-Loup Chatin and Mick Schumacher took to the Brazilian track on Saturday afternoon for qualifying. After a highly competitive session, the German driver finished less than a tenth of a second outside the top ten, while his teammate was 0.046s further back. The two A424s qualified 15th and 16th, less than a second off the benchmark time.

Starting on the eighth row of the grid, Frédéric Makowiecki (#36) and Ferdinand Habsburg (#35) both made a good start and moved up to within striking distance of the top ten after some thrilling battles with the #009 Aston Martin and the #99 Porsche as well as dramatic overtakes on the #8 Toyota. Their comeback was then slowed by the traffic, which created a large gap to the leaders whilst the #35 car was halted shortly afterwards due to a battery issue within the hybrid system.

Frédéric Makowiecki kept up the pressure in the #36 car before handing over to Jules Gounon for a double stint, punctuated by two brief full course yellows and a long battle with the #50 Ferrari. Ninth with two hours to go, the Frenchman handed over to Mick Schumacher. Fourteenth coming out of the pits, the German quickly moved back up to ninth place.

After his final pit stop at the start of the final hour, Mick Schumacher set off in pursuit of the #83 Ferrari, the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans winner. The #36 Alpine ultimately finished ninth, less than a second behind its rival.

Returning to the track after more than an hour in its garage, the sister car #35 had to settle for 18th place in the Hypercar category after the efforts of Paul-Loup Chatin and Charles Milesi.

Despite the absence of any race incidents and starting well back on the grid on a circuit where track position is crucial, the #36 A424 managed to climb from 15th to 9th place after a particularly frustrating first half of the race.

With more points and valuable lessons learned at this race, which attracted 84,741 spectators, Alpine Endurance Team now enters the summer break. The FIA World Endurance Championship will resume at Lone Star Le Mans (5-7 September) at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin (United States).

Quotes

Crew #36

Frédéric Makowiecki
"Looking at our performance overall, we can see that there is still a lot of work to do. The weekend was difficult in some areas. Qualifying was tough, which inevitably made the race more challenging. We had decent speed but not enough to aim for the top five. We need to work hard to get back to the front and fight for podium finishes between now and the end of the season." 

Jules Gounon
"We moved up the order from fifteenth place. Frédéric made an excellent start before producing some great overtakes. We finished ninth, which is another top-ten finish and more points. It was an almost flawless race for us, and we got the most out of what we had. We need to analyse what we could have done better and improve our package so that we can improve further in Austin."

Mick Schumacher
"We didn't maximise our potential because I think we could have at least finished eighth. That said, we can be happy with another points finish, which is the minimum goal for every race. We'll need to learn everything we can from this race before we move on and focus on the next one in Texas."

Crew #35

Ferdinand Habsburg
"We were on pace and doing a good job in clean air. Unfortunately, we suffered a battery issue with the hybrid system, which has never happened to us before. There was nothing the team could have done to prevent it, so there are no hard feelings. It's frustrating because everyone worked so hard, I love racing in Brazil and I think points were possible this weekend. We're quickly turning our attention to Austin, learning from what happened to come back stronger."

Paul-Loup Chatin
"We knew qualifying would be a bit tricky as we lacked performance over a single lap. However, we had shown good race pace in practice and confirmed that at the start of the race. Unfortunately, the issue ruined our chances quite early on. Motorsport is sometimes like this, we have to accept it, but it's frustrating and a shame because we could have had a nice result."

Charles Milesi
"It was not the weekend we had hoped for, but it is at times like these that we learn the most. There is not much to take away from a racing perspective other than that we still have much work to do to reach the level we aspire to. We will use the break to recharge and do everything we can to bounce back in Austin."

Philippe Sinault, Team Principal Alpine Endurance Team
"We can learn a lot from this race. We've improved the car a lot compared to last year, but we missed out on Hyperpole by less than a tenth of a second. That shows how extremely competitive the field is and how small the gaps are. Starting from the back of the grid, we knew we had a tough race ahead of us, with more challenging situations to deal with. Despite this, the drivers put in a clean race, and the team also reacted well to make the car more competitive. We almost got the best out of the #36 car, given our starting position. Unfortunately, the #35 car encountered an unprecedented battery problem, forcing it to stop immediately as a safety precaution. It's frustrating, but it was well-managed, and we were able to get back out and gain more experience. We will now make the most of the short summer break before turning our attention to the Austin round in just a month and a half."

Nicolas Lapierre, Sporting Director Alpine Endurance Team
"After qualifying below our expectations, the goal was clearly to move up the order. The drivers did their part, but we lost a lot of time in traffic at the start of the race. We got some points, but we were hoping for more. Unfortunately, the #35 car lost any chance of a good result quite early on. It's always frustrating, especially when you know how committed the whole team is. That said, this race was very informative. We will analyse the weekend in detail so that we can come back stronger after the summer break."

CLASSIFICATIONS

6 Hours of São Paulo
1. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA #12
9. Alpine Elf Endurance Team #36
18. Alpine Elf Endurance Team #35 

FIA Hypercar World Endurance Drivers Championship
1. Calado / Giovinazzi / Pier Guidi – 105 points
13. Gounon / Makowiecki / Schumacher – 36 points
19. Chatin / Habsburg / Milesi – 12 points

FIA Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers Championship
1. Ferrari – 175 points
6. Alpine – 58 points