After spending a few days in Tokyo, the BWT Alpine Formula One Team arrived in Suzuka for the 35th Japanese Grand Prix held at the legendary figure-of-eight circuit - and the first event in a triple header of races.

For this weekend, Pierre unveiled a special-edition helmet inspired by his time racing in Japan during his Super Formula days. On the back of the lid was an illustration of a Daruma doll, a popular symbol of good luck in Japan, while the overall colour scheme represented the Japanese flag, with the red rising sun on a white background pictured on top of the helmet. Pierre revealed that he was given a Daruma by a fan on his first day in Japan in 2017 - and he made a wish to become an F1 driver. He keeps it safe, next to his winning trophy from the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

After playing some golf and dining out in the Japanese capital, Pierre took the Nozomi Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya, where he was greeted by passionate autograph hunters before arriving in Suzuka. The fans around the venue were especially enthusiastic when local hero Ryō Hirakawa exited the Alpine garage in FP1 on Friday morning.

Ryō completed 24 laps in the morning session, totalling 139km. Given his local experience, it’s a track Ryō knows well, and he was able to push straight away. One key difference to Suzuka this year was that the first sector of the lap had been resurfaced, which increased speeds and lowered lap times.

Unfortunately, Friday afternoon was disrupted by the incident for Jack at the start of FP2 as he entered Turn 1. It was a relief to see Jack walk away from the car, and the mechanics did a brilliant job rebuilding it - working late into the night to prepare Car #7 for Saturday morning, with virtually everything replaced apart from the power unit.

Running on Friday and also Saturday morning was interrupted by the bizarre sight of grass fires around the circuit, caused by a combination of dry grass and sparks from the cars’ titanium skid blocks. That led to more red flag stoppages, impacting the usual run plans. Jack built up his pace on Saturday morning, running on softs to prepare for qualifying - and he was unlucky not to make it into Q2 in the crucial session to set the grid. A small mistake on the exit of Spoon Curve during his final lap caused him to understeer wide and lift off the throttle.

On the other side of the garage, in the number 10 car, Pierre was happy with the balance, particularly after set-up changes had been made since the last race in Shanghai. He looked especially quick in sectors one and three, where he was able to push hard. Just 0.05s separated him from a spot in Q3, underlining the exceptionally fine margins across the field.

Rain on race-day morning dampened the grass around the circuit but not the enthusiasm of the local fans as the lights went out. On the opening lap, Pierre enjoyed a thrilling duel with Fernando Alonso - initially getting ahead, but then the Spaniard got a better run out of Spoon and Pierre had to yield before the flat-out blast through 130R.

Starting P11 on new mediums, Pierre pitted for hards on lap 24. Unfortunately, a small delay in his pit stop meant he rejoined behind Jack in 16th. On lap 33, the team orchestrated a position swap at Turn 1, and on fresher tyres Pierre began to pull away - eventually finishing 13th, just a few seconds behind Yuki Tsunoda. With the resurfaced track and low degradation, the undercut wasn’t as powerful here. Combined with limited overtaking opportunities, this was a race largely dictated by starting position.

“There’s a few things we need to analyse,” said Pierre afterwards. “We had a small issue with the pit stop - I don’t know exactly what happened - and we’ll review it. Ultimately, we didn’t have the outright pace to be in the top ten. Wasn’t miles away, but just lacking a bit.”

Starting 19th on the grid, Jack opted for an alternative strategy on soft Pirellis. With more grip at the start than his rivals, he passed Gabriel Bortoleto into Turn 1 and boxed on lap 15 for new hards, which he ran to the end.

Although he couldn’t keep the soft-shod Carlos Sainz behind, Jack drove superbly to fend off the chasing pack during a long final stint. In the closing stages, he had a train of four cars behind him - Nico Hülkenberg, Liam Lawson, Esteban Ocon, and Gabriel Bortoleto - all covered by just two and a half seconds.

“I had no high-fuel running until today, and we went super aggressive on the strategy, which gave us the best chance at an undercut,” said Jack. “However, it wasn’t the fastest overall race time. It put us in a difficult position with about 25 laps to go when the hard tyre was giving up. We did a good job to keep a number of cars behind - sadly not enough for Carlos, who was on the newer softs.”

Team Principal of BWT Alpine Formula One Team, Oliver Oakes reflected on the Japanese Grand Prix: “It’s not been the smoothest weekend for the team. We found some good steps in performance compared to the first two rounds. Still, it is not enough for us to score points. Jack did a good job to climb a number of positions and we go to Bahrain knowing we had a good pre-season test there and aim to continue making steps forwards.”

After three relatively cool races, the heat is set to rise in the Middle East next weekend as the team heads to Bahrain, followed by Jeddah a week later, for the next instalments in this early season triple-header.