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Tsunoda and Lawson drove excellent qualifying laps and took third and fifth places on the grid. From there, both looked competitive in the early stages. But Tsunoda made an unfortunate mistake when he pitted for full rain as the rain became heavier. Although he looked ready to climb back through the order and was extremely fast, the Safety Car and red flag prevented him from climbing back up the field, and he didn’t have the same kind of pace after the restart.

As for Lawson, he was right in the middle of the action. He was sent around by Piastri, kicked in the rear wing by Bearman and then went side by side, almost colliding with Perez. He took home two well-deserved points.

Liam Lawson, 9th

“It was such a crazy race, with crazy conditions today. I’m very happy for the team, we scored some really good points, which is important for us. I feel like we missed out a little bit, from where we started, we were just a little bit unlucky. Our race got a bit out of hand when we got turned around by the McLaren at the start, which cost us a lot of time; From there it was a bit of a battle and then we boxed for Extremes where we also lost time. We had good pace, especially at the beginning of the stint, but towards the end we struggled a bit more. Alpine made the most of achieving a double podium, which is great for them. They are now only five points ahead. It is absolutely achievable for us, so we will obviously focus on scoring some points in the final triple header.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 7th

“I achieved my best ever qualifying result this morning and I was extremely happy to start the race in P3. Overall the team did a fantastic job and we had a good turnaround from yesterday when we made a lot of changes to the car after we did the Sprint, even though it was difficult to make a real comparison because the conditions were different.

“Coming into the race this afternoon I had a good start and first stint, and I’m generally very happy with my driving, but unfortunately a few things came up. During the race the Red Flag came out in front of us at the wrong time. and the Alpines scored a lot of points, which is a shame for our place in the constructors’ championship. Overall, the rewards don’t really show our results on paper, so it’s definitely a mixed feelings day, but it’s fun to score points. We can once again take many positives from this weekend and we will continue to push in the last three race weekends.”

Laurent Mekies, team boss

“We had a great qualifying this morning. It was a fantastic job by the drivers and the team, consistently topping the time charts during qualifying. The strong performance is a testament to the hard work everyone puts in.

“The race was a roller coaster. We knew it would be difficult and depending on the weather conditions. We were in a very strong position in the first half of the race, with Yuki holding P3 at an incredible pace while Liam defended amazingly. However, our race was affected when the red flag came out; it reduced both drivers’ lead, but that’s part of racing in these conditions. We came away with eight points, which is a great result. Congratulations to Max for a brilliant ride and well done to Alpine, even though the points they scored today will see us compete even closer in the final three races. It’s still very close and we had a fast car this weekend. We now have 19 days before the final triple-header of the season, and we will be working hard at home to build on the performance improvement we have seen in the last two races and get every second out of the car. We will fight hard in Las Vegas.”

Jody Egginton, Technical Director

“The day started well with both drivers qualifying in the top five, showing strong performances on both the wet and inter tyres. We were ready for a strong race. The first phase of the race went well, with Yuki running strongly in P3 and Liam also delivering a solid opening stint in P7. As the rain increased and track conditions deteriorated, both cars switched to the wet tire. The two Alpines stayed outside and took track position, which they retained with the red flag. Our pace on the restart was not as strong as we needed to keep up with the cars in front of us. Yuki came home in P7 and Liam finished in P9, defending against Hamilton and Perez for many laps. It’s good to score points with both cars, but given what Alpine achieved in the race, we remain frustrated as there was potential for more points. We will review the race and driver feedback to determine what we could have done differently to be ready for Las Vegas.”