Mick Schumacher blames tyre warmup for Alpine qualifying in

It’s not great,” he said, looking a bit downcast, when Motorsport Week asked the German about how Alpine’s qualifying, and his own in the #36 Alpine A424, had gone.

“There were obviously some points there such as tyre warm up, which wasn’t great. It was a bit impeded by some of the cars around us not being in a great position.

“At that point, just because we were doing something and some people were doing another kind of strategy, by bedding in some tyres, we were a bit impeded, and therefore our tyres weren’t quite ready into the first lap, and then by the second lap they weren’t quite there any more,” he said.

In the opening 20 minute qualifying session for the Hypercars, some teams, including the BMWs and Ferraris, scrubbed in a set of tyres for the race.

So, from what the German said, it’s possible cars which had pitted caused Schumacher to not be able to get the tyres into the ideal window to do a quick lap.

“It’s a bit unfortunate, but at the end of the day, we have eight hours tomorrow to make up for it,” he finished.

Schumacher hoping for better race pace
With qualifying not going the way Alpine would have wanted, the focus is now fully on the eight hours in front of them.