Pierre Gasly qualified seventh in Singapore and finished 11th, the Alpine A524 dissolving under him over race distance. The car's traction deficit turned every corner exit into a drift session — Gasly's words: "I'm sideways every time I touch the throttle." Cold tyres masked the issue over a single qualifying lap. Race stints told the truth: three laps in, the rears were cooked, grip vanished, and faster cars behind became faster cars ahead.
A botched start didn't help — no power off the line dropped him to ninth immediately. But the real damage came late. Gasly held tenth with six laps to run, eight seconds off P7, then bled 24 seconds over the closing stint as the tyres gave up. Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar sailed past.
Alpine's now 32 points adrift of Racing Bulls in the constructors' fight, three scoreless races piling up. The rim configuration Gasly cited won't fix itself before Austin.
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