Da Costa and Alpine enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans from third place after a strong Hyperpole
António Félix da Costa and the Alpine Endurance Team secured third place on the starting grid for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, after the final Hyperpole session in the Hypercar category at the Circuit de la Sarthe. According to the official announcement by the FIA World Endurance Championship, the starting position of the Alpine A424 crew with number 35 was delivered by Da Costa's drive in the final part of qualifying, and third place puts the French team in one of the most favorable positions ahead of the most important race of the season. The race of the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans begins on 13 June at 16:00 Central European Time and ends on 14 June at the same time, as confirmed by the official FIA WEC schedule. For the crew made up of Da Costa, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg, the result carries special weight because it was achieved in a very tightly matched order at the top of the Hypercar class. Alpine emphasized in its statement that car #35 had previously also been the fastest in both the qualifying practice and the first Hyperpole round, showing that third place did not come as an isolated flash but as a continuation of a competitive week at Le Mans.
BMW on pole position after Cadillac's penalty
Pole position for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans went to the #15 BMW M Team WRT car, shared by Dries Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello. According to the FIA WEC report, Vanthoor inherited first place in the final Hyperpole 2 session after the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA lost its best lap due to a stewards' penalty. Jack Aitken in the Cadillac was initially faster than Vanthoor by only five thousandths of a second, but his best lap was deleted because, as FIA WEC states, the car left the working lane in the pit lane and entered the fast lane before receiving permission to do so. As a result, Cadillac #38 dropped to tenth place, and BMW #15 took the official pole position. According to Autosport's timing table, BMW remained at the top with a lap of 3:22.564, ahead of the #12 Cadillac with a time of 3:23.078 and Alpine's #35 car with a time of 3:23.620.
Da Costa's lap was strong enough for Alpine to keep a place on the second row of the grid, immediately behind the two cars that remained ahead of it after Cadillac's penalty. Alpine stated in its official report that the Portuguese driver completed three timed laps on soft tyres in Hyperpole 2: 3:25.083, then 3:23.854 and finally 3:23.620. The final attempt brought the definitive third place in the Hypercar order and confirmed the potential of the A424 car in the most important part of qualifying week. In the context of a race that lasts 24 hours, starting position alone does not guarantee a result, but in the dense Hypercar competition it provides a tactical advantage in the opening laps and enables the team to avoid some of the risk in the middle of the field. For Alpine, this is particularly important because throughout the week the team emphasized preparation for race rhythm, tyre consumption and system reliability, and not just one qualifying lap.
Alpine #35 first fastest in qualifying and Hyperpole 1
The road to third starting place began already in the first Hypercar qualifying session. According to Alpine's statement, Ferdinand Habsburg drove a 3:23.135 in qualifying practice and thereby set the best time of the session, in which only the 15 fastest cars advanced to Hyperpole 1. That was an important confirmation of the speed of Alpine's #35 car, especially because qualifying at Le Mans is sensitive to traffic, tyre condition and changes in track conditions. In a separate announcement, the ACO stated that Alpine, with Habsburg at the wheel, was the fastest in that phase and that the A424 lowered the time below the pole time from 2025. Such a start created a strong basis for Thursday evening, when the Hyperpole format further narrowed the circle of candidates for the top of the starting order. According to its own report, the team simultaneously continued checking the mechanical components and car settings after the data collected on the test day.
In Hyperpole 1, Alpine was again at the top, this time with Charles Milesi in car #35. Alpine announced that Milesi, with the help of the slipstream provided to him on the straights by Jules Gounon from the sister car #36, set a time of 3:23.018 and finished the session as the fastest. In the same part of qualifying, Gounon finished 13th with the other Alpine, and Alpine states that he missed advancing to Hyperpole 2 by 0.131 seconds. Thus #36, shared by Frédéric Makowiecki, Jules Gounon and Victor Martins, stopped before the final fight for pole position and was assigned 13th starting place for the race. For #35, however, advancement to the final round meant that the third crew member, Da Costa, would get the opportunity to complete the decisive laps. Alpine pointed out that the new qualifying format included all three drivers from the crews that reached Hyperpole 2, which further emphasized the breadth and coordination of the entire crew.
Da Costa's return to Hypercar qualifying brought an important result
Da Costa arrived at Le Mans as one of the most prominent reinforcements of the Alpine Endurance Team for the 2026 season. According to an earlier FIA WEC announcement, he is a former Formula E champion and two-time Macau Grand Prix winner, who signed a multi-year contract with the French manufacturer to compete in the World Endurance Championship. Ahead of the season, Alpine announced that Da Costa would drive car #35 alongside Milesi and Habsburg, two drivers who had been connected with the development of the A424 from the beginning of the Hypercar programme. That combination of experience and continuity proved important at Le Mans, where qualifying demands top-level speed, but the race above all punishes mistakes and an uneven rhythm. In the team's post-qualifying announcement, Da Costa assessed that he can fight from third position, emphasizing that race pace is crucial regardless of the conditions.
For Da Costa, Hyperpole 2 also had a personal dimension because, according to Alpine's statement, he did not have much recent experience in Hypercar qualifying laps at Le Mans. The team stated that his task was demanding also because he was not used to driving qualifying on soft tyres, but sporting director Nicolas Lapierre stressed that the drivers did the job without mistakes. Such an assessment is important in the context of a 24-hour race, in which the result is most often built through consistency, proper execution of strategy and avoiding penalties. In the final phase, Da Costa had to find the balance between risk and control, because every departure from the ideal line could have meant a loss of tyre temperature or contact with traffic. Third place is therefore doubly useful for Alpine: it brings a visible sporting result and confirms that the crew has depth across all three drivers.
The 13.626-kilometre circuit remains the biggest test for Hypercar
The official FIA WEC data for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans state that the Circuit de la Sarthe is 13.626 kilometres long and has 38 corners, of which 18 are left-handers and 20 are right-handers. It is a special circuit because it combines permanent sections of racing infrastructure and roads that are open to public traffic for the rest of the year. In its Le Mans preview, Alpine recalled that such a configuration places special strain on both the car and the drivers, because the long straights require efficient aerodynamics and maximum speed, while braking zones and fast corners punish the slightest instability. During the night hours, the challenge increases further, especially for drivers who must adapt to different visibility, slow zones, yellow flags and traffic from other classes. That is precisely why a good starting position has value, but the real test of Alpine's potential begins only once the race rhythm stabilizes after the first driver changes.
Le Mans is the third competition of the FIA WEC calendar in the 2026 season and the most important event of the championship, while the Hypercar class gathers a large number of factory programmes. The official FIA WEC page for the race lists 14 manufacturers as part of the event, which further explains why the gaps in qualifying are very small. After Hyperpole, FIA WEC also highlighted the strong performance of the new Genesis Magma Racing, which took sixth and ninth place in the Hypercar order, while the best Ferrari finished eighth. Toyota, a multiple Le Mans winner and one of the benchmark endurance teams, according to the same report did not advance beyond Hyperpole 1 and starts from the lower part of the Hypercar order. Such a lineup shows how much the balance of power at the top has changed and how important Alpine's third place is for the psychological and strategic position of the team.
The second Alpine starts from 13th position, but the team sees a broader opportunity
Although the main attention is focused on #35, Alpine enters the race with two Hypercars. The sister #36, with Makowiecki, Gounon and Martins, will start from 13th place, according to Alpine's announcement. The team stated that Makowiecki had a minor off-track moment in the first free practice at the exit of the Esses de la Forêt, but the mechanics quickly returned the car to a condition ready for qualifying. This is important because the 24 Hours of Le Mans rarely allows a perfect week without difficulties, and the team's ability to react quickly is often as important as pure speed. Gounon missed advancement to the final round in Hyperpole 1 because of a small deficit, but at the same time he played a role in helping the sister car. According to Alpine, Martins was gaining his first experience of night driving at Le Mans during the week, which for a debutant in such conditions represents a significant part of preparation.
Alpine Endurance Team sporting director Nicolas Lapierre assessed in the team's announcement that the team showed solid pace and that the drivers were flawless at key moments. Team principal Philippe Sinault emphasized that third place on the grid is an excellent position and that Alpine has a competitive race car, but at the same time he pointed out that the final details still needed to be refined before the start. Such wording shows a realistic approach: qualifying has raised expectations, but at Le Mans an advantage can easily be lost because of safety procedures, slow zones, pit-stop strategy or changing weather conditions. Alpine will therefore have to turn the speed from Wednesday and Thursday into a stable rhythm across the entire day and night. Third starting position enables a better entry into the race, but it does not change the fundamental rule of Le Mans: victory goes to the team that manages for the longest time to combine speed, reliability and discipline.
What third place means ahead of the start
For the Alpine Endurance Team, third place in Hyperpole has sporting and symbolic significance. In its event preview, Alpine stated that the A424 is in its third appearance at Le Mans in the Hypercar category and that the programme had developed from its first appearance in 2024 to a double top-ten finish a year later. In the same preview, the team recalled that in 2025 it achieved victory at the 6 Hours of Fuji, showing that the project has already reached a level at which it can take advantage of opportunities when they open up. Le Mans, however, is a different test from standard six- or eight-hour races because it combines long exposure of the mechanical components, changes in track temperature, traffic from multiple classes and heavy strategic pressure. Starting from the second row therefore does not bring Alpine certainty, but it gives it a position from which it can actively manage the race instead of immediately having to make up lost time.
The final impression of qualifying confirms that the #35 Alpine A424 is one of the cars to watch from the first hour of the race. According to the available and officially published information before the start on 13 June 2026, BMW #15 starts from pole position, Cadillac #12 from second position, and Alpine #35 from third. With his final lap, Da Costa confirmed the work of Habsburg and Milesi in the previous phases of qualifying, while the team showed speed at the level of the top of Hypercar through all three sessions. Still, the 24 Hours of Le Mans remains a race in which the starting order often serves only as an initial sketch, not as a forecast of the final outcome. Alpine's opportunity is now clear: keep a clean race, avoid operational mistakes and turn qualifying momentum into a result that will carry weight after 24 hours of driving.
Sources:
- FIA World Endurance Championship – official announcement on BMW's pole position, Cadillac's penalty and the Hyperpole order at Le Mans 2026. (link)
- Alpine Cars Media – official Alpine Endurance Team statement on the third starting place of car #35 and the course of qualifying. (link)
- Autosport – results table of the Hyperpole 2 session with times and order in the Hypercar category. (link)
- FIA World Endurance Championship – official page of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans race with the schedule, circuit data and event information. (link)
- 24h-lemans.com / Automobile Club de l'Ouest – announcement on Alpine as the fastest in the first Hypercar qualifying phase. (link)
- Alpine Cars Media – Le Mans preview and context of the development of the Alpine A424 programme in the Hypercar category. (link)