Alex Dunne delivered an incredible performance during the F2 Azerbaijan GP weekend, putting him 18 points behind the championship leader, which Dunne believes shows how ‘high the level is’ in the series.
Although Dunne’s weekend was not perfect, he put up an incredible fight and delivered a strong performance. From storming to pole in the first qualifying session, the ‘supersized’ Baku weekend began on a high. He went on to grab P2 in the second qualifying, behind teammate Martinius Stenshorne, and roared from tenth on the grid to third in the Sprint Race.
The first Feature Race saw the Rodin driver charge ahead, converting pole to a win. In the second Feature Race, he crossed the chequered flag first on track, but a 5-second time penalty dropped him to P3. Still, the driver ended up on the podium steps in all three races.
Despite a strong weekend, the Irishman said he wanted ‘to go home’ after Feature Race 2. Reflecting on the weekend, Dunne pointed out errors made on track, but still took some satisfaction from the good results.
“I don’t know, I just want to go home, to be honest,” Dunne said.
“I mean, no, it’s been a really good weekend. We were on the front row for both races, pole, and I won both races on track. So I think apart from one silly little mistake, in terms of driving and on my side, I don’t think I really left much out there, which is what I said I would do at the beginning of the weekend.
“I think the car was really good all weekend. The team really turned it around. Today we probably struggled a little bit more, but it’s not going to be perfect every time.
“I think I still managed to hang on pretty well, and the car was also good enough to hang on, even though we were struggling in front of Rafa [Camara] and Nico [Tsolov] towards the end. But I think ultimately, as far as weekends go, I think it was pretty good.”
Closing the gap in the championship
The Baku weekend ended with Rafa Camara leaving as the championship leader. The season has been incredibly tight, with narrow margins separating the top four drivers. In just two weekends, Dunne shrank the gap to Camara from 59 points to 18.
While the gap between Camara and Nikola Tsolov in second is only seven points, Dunne lurks closely behind and has a real chance to take the title.
Asked about the championship gap and if he believes he can get closer to the drivers ahead of him, Dunne was optimistic he could close in on them.
“That’s the plan. I mean, I’m going to give it everything and I’m going to try my best to try and close the gap. It’s obviously not going to be difficult.
“I think it’s pretty cool in the sense that coming into this race, we were all pretty close in points, and even though we all started in completely different places, we’re all here in the top three.
“I think it shows us how high the level is and how close the championship is. And wherever we do end up finishing, I’m sure it’ll be an interesting one.”
The F2 action is set to resume in Qatar at the end of November, before the concluding round takes place in Abu Dhabi. With two rounds to go, Dunne remains hopeful he can close the gap and take the title.
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