Gasly says there's "no hiding" for Alpine after difficult qualifying in Spa

Gasly's difficult weekend in Spa continued with a Q2 elimination | Credit: Formula One

Having recovered from a session-ending crash in FP2 on Friday, the difficulties continued for Alpine's Pierre Gasly as he failed to qualify into the top 10 ahead of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix. Gasly, as the lead points-scorer for the team, has achieved multiple Q3 appearances in 2026 but a string of less than ideal results on Saturday continues.

Assessing the situation as it currently stands, Gasly estimated that "we're [Alpine] missing a couple of tenths to be in the top 10". Having been outqualifed by Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad, it seems as though the French manufacturer have lost a bit of ground to some of the other midfield teams this weekend. Coming into round 10 of the 2026 championship, Alpine hold onto a slender lead of one point ahead of Racing Bulls in the Constructors' standings.

Discussing the next steps for the team to ensure they stay as best of the rest, the former Grand Prix winner made it clear that the team "just need to put our head down" and "bring more performance onto that car". Alpine, using the Mercedes engine for the first time since the start of the 2026 season, have enjoyed a marked turnaround in performance compared to 2025 however maintaining their advantage over the rest will require a further boost from the driver and team.

With qualifying complete, only Sunday's Grand Prix remains with valuable points up for grabs. For Gasly, and Alpine as a team, it is clear that "anything can happen, especially in Spa". Perhaps even more reassuring for both the driver and team was the fact that Gasly believes that "we're not miles off that P10".

Speaking realistically, the French driver noted that "hopefully we can be in the mix" but there's no guarantee that moving up with order will be easy. Even with the overtaking opportunities that the circuit provides, Spa is a true test of a driver's abilities and Gasly has already seen this weekend how quickly things can escalate from bad to worse.