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After the two-week summer break, the F1 world gathered at Spa Francorchamps to begin the second half of the season.
Pierre arrived with his spirits high, determined to continue the excellent first half of 2021.
Despite what happened here 2 years ago, Anthoine's accident, Pierre has other, more positive memories of this circuit, whose layout is one of his favourites of the year.
The weather proved to be faithful to the Belgian circuit's reputation and the whole weekend was spent in the rain.
From free practice on Friday, Pierre performed very well, exceeding everyone's expectations by placing his AlphaTauri 3rd and 5th in the two free practice sessions.
Pierre: "I'm very happy to be back in business after the summer break, especially on a track as beautiful as Spa. It was important for us to start the weekend on the right foot and I think we did that today by finishing P3 and P5. We've identified which areas of the car we need to work on this evening in order to further improve performance tomorrow. The weather is always very changeable at Spa. We've had a range of conditions today, and there's a good chance of rain again tomorrow so we need to be prepared for that. Our baseline seems to be working well, but we need to confirm that tomorrow in qualifying."
Saturday's weather did not disappoint the Belgian fans, who were expecting an indecisive qualifying session in the rain.
The afternoon session lasted more than 1hr30mins, due to several interruptions by race management who judged that the level of water on the track made it impracticable, as well as Lando Norris going off track and destroying his McLaren at the top of the Raidillon bend.
Pierre managed to deliver another solid performance, putting in fast, faultless laps every time he was sent out onto the track by his team. When qualifying his AlphaTauri in Q3 should have been a remarkable achievement, Pierre turned it into a habit, and finally qualified in sixth place... for the sixth time this season.
Pierre: "It's been a fun afternoon, and I've really enjoyed driving in these conditions. You never know what you're going to get on the track or what the limits of the car are going to be. You constantly have to test the grip and understand where the limit is. In the end, it was another great qualifying session for us with P6, and I think we're in a good position for tomorrow's race. The conditions were difficult today and I'm relieved to see that Lando got out of the car unscathed. I have no idea what the weather will be like tomorrow, it's been so changeable all weekend, so I'll just wait until I open the curtains tomorrow morning to find out for myself."
Sunday's race was rather unique. Insistent rain forced the race directors to delay the start several times and then to pass the Red Flag. We had to wait 3 hours before the drivers were asked to complete 2 laps behind the Safety Car (no overtaking allowed) in order for the race to count towards the championship (for half the points). The final classification is therefore identical to that of qualifying (Pierre P6), with the exception of Sergio Perez who lost his car during the formation lap.