Alex Dunne was close to victory around the streets of Monaco for the Formula 2 Feature Race, but tyre preparation stood between him and the win.
Dunne started third in the Feature Race, with a podium all but guaranteed around the impossible to overtake streets of Monaco. However, the Irishman hoped for more. In the pit stop battle, Dunne emerged ahead of Nikola Tsolov and hoped he’d be able to stay in front.
The tyres were hard to get up to temperature around Monte Carlo, with drivers having to take extra care on the warm-up laps. Dunne described it as ‘pretty tricky’.
“Pretty tricky. To be honest, when I came out of the pit lane, my engineer said it’s going to be close with Tsolov. I thought he made a mistake or something, I was saying. There’s no way I’ve come out in front.”
“I didn’t realise how much time you actually lost on the cold tyres. Then, when I was in front of him through T2 and T3, it was like I was driving on ice. I tried my best to keep him behind, but it was nearly impossible.”
Tyre temperature was key
While Dunne had to let Tsolov go due to the tyre temperature difference, he managed to stay ahead of those on the opposing strategy and maintain second.
“Yeah, it was very, very difficult. It was tricky, but in the end, I’m glad that I managed to keep the soft runners who had stayed out a long time behind me.
“I think if they managed to get past, my race would have been very, very difficult, and I probably would have got jumped by, I think it was Kush who did the alternative strategy or went a bit longer. It was tricky, but in the end, I think to come away with P2 and keep the cars behind me, I was happy.”
Last season, Dunne’s biggest issues were DNFs and inconsistency. This year, he’s had three rounds in the points. The Irishman hoped for more ‘boring’ races.
“That’s the goal. I think, to be honest, to just try and have… Today was a pretty boring race, but I think in the future, if we can have more boring races, that would be a good thing.
“Just to stay out of trouble. I think just keep our nose clean and just pick up the points is all I’m trying to do. I think there’s no point in going into every weekend trying really hard to put it on pole and win the race. If we can just be in the top five all the time, all the way until the end of the year, then that should score pretty good points.”
Overtaking in Monaco
Because of its narrow roads, Monaco is constantly criticised for being impossible to overtake. Even though the F2 cars are far smaller than the F1 cars. Dunne admitted it was hard to get ahead, even in the opening phase, where the field is tightly knit.
“I think here it’s very, very difficult to get, even if you’re… To be honest, I think if you look at yesterday, for example, in the Sprint Race, some of us were driving like 10 seconds a lap slower than a push lap at some points, and even then, the cars behind still couldn’t get past.
“I think it shows how difficult it really is to overtake here. No matter what you do, it’s nearly impossible, to be honest. I think if you go for a move, you have to be super committed, and either it’s going to pay off or you’re going to end up in a crash.
“To be honest, I think what you gain from a move here is not really worth it.”
Dunne knows better than most the price you pay for making a move in Monaco. He caused a massive collision last year. However, he’s come a long way since 2025. With his consistency, he has climbed to just 15 points shy of the championship lead.
READ MORE: Nikola Tsolov takes surprise Monaco victory in F2 Feature chaos
Discussion about this post