There were smiles across our garage on Sunday night in Shanghai as we achieved double points in a brilliant, gripping Grand Prix.

Pierre was classified a strong sixth, while Franco secured his first points finish with us. Here’s how a successful weekend in China unfolded.

Sprinting into action

After the long flight from Melbourne, the spacious paddock at the Shanghai International Circuit became our home for the weekend. And it was a busy one on-track, thanks to China hosting the first Sprint race of the year.

After media duties on Thursday – including an appearance at the official FIA Drivers’ Press Conference for Pierre – and a tree planting activation with the promoter on Arbor Day - it was straight into FP1 on Friday morning for the vital single hour of practice before the competitive element of the weekend began.

From the outset, we found more performance in the A526, thanks to the learnings from Australia, and from the very first lap out of the garage Pierre felt much more comfortable in the car. He completed 28 laps and set a time good enough for P10.

Franco, his first appearance at the Shanghai International Circuit, had a quick spin early in the session, then came to a halt at the top of the pit lane. Our mechanics took part in the first real sprint of the weekend, running the length of the pit lane with jacks and brake cooling equipment to help get the car back, before turning back to the garage as Franco got it fired up and was underway again! He finished practice in P15.

Alpine success in F1 Academy

The opening round of the all-female F1 Academy series took place at the Shanghai International Circuit, and there was success for our Dutch racer, Alpine Academy member, Nina Gademan in the first race of the weekend.

Lining up on reverse-grid pole, Nina delivered a superb performance in her pink-liveried BWT Alpine Formula One Team and MP Motorsport machine. She led every lap to secure a dominant win, building up a 1.5-second lead before the Safety Car was deployed. After a strong restart, she crossed the line to score her second career win in F1 Academy.

“It was a very easy race, as I learned a lot from last year on how to manage a race from P1,” said the 22-year-old. “And then the last two laps, I was thinking I’m not going to push anymore. I’m going to play it safe. The degradation here is really high, so I thought let’s not over-push, let’s not spin and just finish the race.”

Starting P8 for the second 13-lap event, Nina put in another strong performance in an action-packed contest on Sunday morning to secure fourth place at the flag. It means she leaves China – with the next round scheduled for Montréal – third in the drivers’ standings on 22 points.

Saturday in Shanghai

The team endured a challenging Sprint race on Saturday morning with tyre graining – when tyres have a lower core temperature which leads to rubber wearing off in chunks, reducing grip – proving to be an issue. Pierre had a tricky morning with degradation, slipping to P11 in the final classification. Meanwhile, Franco managed to improve by two places in the 19-lap race, which featured a brief Safety Car for a stopped car at Turn 1.

Heading into Qualifying, there was caution from Managing Director Steve Nielsen who said he “expected some of our rivals to close the gap”. The fact that Pierre delivered another excellent lap in Q3 to line up seventh on the grid once more was testament to the work the whole team had put in overnight – including valuable help from junior driver Gabriele Mini back on the simulator at Enstone – to continue to beat our rivals.

On Franco’s side of the garage, there was significant improvement too after overnight setup changes. He was ever-so-close to reaching Q3 with Pierre, missing out by the tiniest of margins – only 0.005s – leaving him P12 on the grid for Sunday with the prospect of a more competitive race ahead.

Punching above expectations

Since we first started racing in China in 2004, the support for Formula One has grown every season. This year, weekend attendance was up 10,000 from last year to 230,000. And the reception at the Fan Forums on Friday and Saturday was huge, with large numbers of enthusiastic fans supporting both drivers. Having admitted in Australia his love for ‘Punch’, the baby macaque of social media fame, one fan even managed to present Franco with a soft toy similar to the one ‘Punch’ had befriended.

Despite benefiting from the absence of the two McLarens from the starting grid, both cars made an excellent start to run fifth and sixth at the end of the first lap – Franco making up five places from his starting slot. At this point, he was the highest runner on the hard tyre, and while he was promoted as high as second place when the Medium-shod leaders pitted on lap 10 behind a Safety Car, the intervention ultimately hindered his overall race strategy.

With Alpine Cars CEO Philippe Krief a keen spectator in the garage on race day, Franco did a great job in holding up the cars behind him on his Hard tyres. There was some epic duelling in this race, and Pierre rejoined the fight, even passing both Franco and the Haas of Esteban Ocon in one move on the pit straight – which – on replay proved to be a great display of teamwork in beating the Frenchman.

Franco pitted three laps later than the Haas (on lap 32) and emerged in front of him. Ocon hit Franco into a spin and damaged the floor of the car. He accepted the penalty and came to apologise to Franco afterwards. Despite this, Franco continued and was closing in on Carlos Sainz’s Williams in the final laps. Unable to find a way past, Franco finished tenth and managed to score his first point for us.

Pierre was also happy with a sixth-placed-finish, but frustrated as he knew that P5 was within reach. And despite pushing hard in the closing laps to chase down the second Haas of Oliver Bearman, he couldn’t get close enough to regain the position. Still, it was a strong end to the weekend and a big improvement from Melbourne.

“To come away with nine points and both Pierre and Franco scoring is a great result for the team,” said Flavio Briatore. “Both drivers did a super job and got a nice reward for the team to take back to Enstone after a tough double-header to start the season. Also, congratulations to Kimi [Antonelli] on his first win in Formula One. It’s the first win from an Italian and a fellow countryman since Fisi [Giancarlo Fisichella] with us in 2006.”