Martin Brundle saw a telling sign from trackside before Pierre Gasly’s huge Belgian Grand Prix crash

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Martin Brundle had already noticed that the Alpine A526 looked “quite flighty” at Spa before Pierre Gasly crashed towards the end of FP2 at the 2026 F1 Belgian Grand Prix.

Gasly was left to watch the final minutes of practice at Spa on Friday from the sidelines after he had a huge crash on the exit of the Fagnes chicane. The 30-year-old did not catch a snap of oversteer under acceleration in time, and he tagged the wall at the end of the gravel trap.

Running through the gravel trap on the outside of Turn 14 meant Alpine ace Gasly was on a collision course with the wall. The rear-right corner of his car indeed clipped the barrier and pitched the Frenchman into a spin, resulting in further impacts with the front and rear ends.

Martin Brundle noticed Alpine’s car looked lively before Pierre Gasly’s FP2 crash at Spa

Debris from Gasly’s Alpine disintegrating across his two impacts with the wall scattered the Spa track. But the Rouen native was initially confused about why he lost the rear of his car on the exit of the Fagnes chicane and ultimately spun, claiming that it came out of “nowhere”.

READ MORE: How to watch the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix, plus the weather forecast for Spa

“[I] just absolutely lost it out of nowhere,” Gasly said on Alpine’s team radio straight after his crash during FP2 at the Belgian GP at Spa on Friday. “I must’ve lost the rear.”

Brundle was watching practice as Mercedes ace Andrea Kimi Antonelli set the pace in FP2 at the Belgian GP from trackside, and had already noticed that the rear end of the Alpine A526 looked lively before Gasly crashed and caused the second red flag interruption of the hour.

Brundle said on Sky Sports F1 (17/07, 16:49): “A lot of debris. The rear wing just coming off the track. The Alpine’s been quite flighty. I was saying about cars that were a little bit loose at the back through the second part of that Fagnes [chicane] when we were looking at it.

“There’s also bits of advertising hoarding – this green H here is just going off the track – and there’s still an awful lot of debris, little bits and pieces out here near the fire and rescue.”

Kimi Antonelli set the pace in FP2 at the Belgian Grand Prix – What was your main takeaway from Friday at Spa?

Kimi Antonelli fastest in Belgian Grand Prix FP2 after second red flag for Pierre Gasly crash

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The second free practice session at the Belgian GP had already been stopped once due to a lot of gravel getting dragged onto the track at the exit of Stavelot. Gasly’s crash later caused another stoppage, but the rest of the grid managed to return to the circuit for one more run.

Gasly crashed in the last 10 minutes of FP2 while on a race simulation run using the medium C3 compound Pirelli tyres. His attention had turned towards preparing for this Sunday’s race at Spa, despite not recording a representative quick lap time on the soft C4 compound tyres.

Earlier in the session, Gasly had registered a 1:47.360 with the C4 soft Pirelli tyres during his qualifying simulation run at Spa. But the one-time Grand Prix winner lost his best lap time of the hour, as his effort was deleted after exceeding track limits on the inside out of Raidillon.

Losing his fastest lap time ultimately meant Gasly finished FP2 at the Belgian GP in only P18, as his second-fastest effort was 3.011s off the pace that Antonelli managed in his Mercedes. Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto, meanwhile, ended FP2 in P7 with a lap time of 1:47.147.