Mick Schumacher says he had a “lot of fun” in the closing stages of the 6 Hours of Fuji as he battled his way to a first podium in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Alpine.
Alongside his co-drivers in the No. 36 Alpine A424, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere, Schumacher finished third in Sunday’s penultimate round of the season in Japan after passing Hertz Team JOTA’s Norman Nato in the closing stages.
Prior to Fuji, the No. 36 crew’s best finish of the season had been ninth at the Circuit of The Americas, while Alpine as a whole had not finished higher than fifth.
As well as Alpine’s first podium, it also marked Schumacher’s first top-three finish in any category since the Sochi round of his title-winning Formula 2 season in 2020.
“We had some really close battles, and I’m getting more confidence of how to fight in WEC,” Schumacher told reporters post-race. “I wasn’t expecting it to be that hard, but the cars are pretty robust and it seems like the good old days in karting.
“It’s been a lot of fun out there. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium – I didn’t really know what to do anymore, it’s been so long! But I’m really happy.”
Schumacher’s battle against Nato was helped by the fact his Alpine had been equipped with two new tires at the final round of pit stops, while JOTA had sent both of its Porsche 963s back out without changing tires in a bid to gain track position.
“We had two new tires on the left-hand side, so I knew I had the tire advantage and it was a matter of time until I positioned myself in the right spot,” added Schumacher.
“I have to say I was a bit afraid of the [No. 93] Peugeot at the end, as they had good pace in the last stint with four new tires, but we managed ourselves well. The team did a great job and I think we can be really happy.”
Schumacher conceded that the No. 36 crew lacked the pace of the sister No. 35 Alpine, which looked on course for at least third before Charles Milesi picked up a drive-through penalty in the final hour for contact with a LMGT3 car.
“We started off [the weekend] with, in my opinion, the worst car we’ve had this year,” said the German. “We were not confident. No. 35 seemed to be a bit better and the No. 36 struggled a bit more for some reason, and you could see that in the pace.
“There is still homework to do, some digging on our side to see if something is different.”
Milesi Takes Blame for Incident That Led to Penalty
Milesi meanwhile accepted responsibility for the contact with the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Charlie Eastwood that resulted in the No. 35 Alpine’s penalty.
Looking back on the incident, which took place at the final corner, Milesi recalled: “I couldn’t do anything. He was going left, right, left, right and I didn’t know where he was going. I tried going inside and he moved at the last moment.
“It’s my fault I hit him, so we have to accept the penalty. It’s a bit harsh for what happened, but in the end I did a mistake and it cost us a podium.”
Milesi and his teammates in the No. 35 car, Jules Gounon and Ferdinand Habsburg, had fought their way back into contention after the second-lap melee in which Habsburg was caught up that left the crew down the order.
“We had strong pace since the beginning of the weekend,” said Milesi. “We made up our way back to the front with a really strong car, the car was even better than Austin.
“We had the No. 36 car on the podium, which is good for everyone in the team. Hopefully we can get our own podium with the No. 35 car.”
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