Peter Lyon
September 28, 2025
The French national anthem rang out loud and clear at Fuji Speedway today as the Alpine team took their first victory in the World Endurance Championships.
After a chaotic Fuji 6 Hours, Alpine’s A424 LMDh won the World Endurance Championship for the first time, piloted by Charles Milesi, Paul-Loup Chatin, and Ferdinand Habsburg.
In a race that was cut short by three safety cars and five Full Course Yellows, the #35 won by a mere 7.6 seconds from the #93 Peugeot 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercar, which was shared by Mikkel Jensen, Paul di Resta, and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Milesi was able to climb from third to first at the final pitstop when he took only two new tyres rather than the four that the lead Peugeot and the second-placed Penske Porsche 963 took.
After the pitstop cycle was over, Milesi was around eight seconds ahead, and he was able to increase his lead to eleven seconds in the last hour. This gave him a significant lead after the stops.
The Alpine car, which handed the brand its first WEC victory since a Judd-powered A480 grandfathered LMP1 car triumphed at Monza in July 2022, did not seem to be a likely race winner for most of the race.
Habsburg was penalised in the early stages after he nudged the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID from behind, a racing incident that also resulted in a nose swap at the first pitstop.
But with two and a half hours to go, Alpine became a contender when Chatin managed to enter the pits just seconds before the race’s second Full Course Yellow was implemented. And because the Alpine pitted at the most advantageous moment, it proved to be pivotal to the end result and the French team went on to snatch its first victory.
The pit was undertaken when the majority of the Hypercar field was moving at a slow 80km/h which quickly turned into a safety car proper.
When the race went green, Chatin finished second to the Peugeot, but as the last round of pit stops drew near, he fell to a charging Estre in the Porsche.
However, a pitstop infraction cost the Porsche five seconds, dropping it to third place for the last hour.
Vanthoor finished third and only half a second behind Jensen after spending the last several laps of the race stuck to his tail.
Pre-race weekend favorites Toyota could only manage eighth with the #7 GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway ahead of the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
Great job Alpine on your first win. Maybe a bit of luck here and there, but that’s what racing is all about. Some national anthems really bring home the pure joy and satisfaction of winning a race, and few anthems, when sung very loud, sound as good as ‘La Marseillaise’.
