A 2nd place finish for Alex Dunne in the F2 Feature Race at the 2026 Canadian GP has kick-started the Irishman’s season. He is now 7th in the championship, 27 points behind Gabriele Minì.
Having received a three-place penalty after qualifying, the Alpine junior found himself starting P6 in very tricky conditions in Montréal. He made up a spot early doors thanks to race leader Laurens van Hoepen crashing out from the lead.
However, following a second Safety Car to clear Fittipaldi’s AIX Racing machine, his task became a big one. A double stack behind Rodin teammate Martinius Stenshorne as almost all drivers pitted left Dunne back in 13th on the road, and a net P9 at that stage.
Initially, he dropped another spot as Noel León passed him at the hairpin. From there, however, the Irish driver came storming thorough the field with an excellent performance of patience.
While a collision between Maini and Tsolov sent the Bulgarian tumbling, Câmara spinning himself battling Bilinski, Villagómez breaking his suspension fighting the Brazilian, and Beganovic’s engine packing in helped, the Rodin Motorsport star passed Montoya, Maini, Shields, Boya, Bilinski and Minì to recover to an outstanding P2.
Teammate Martinius Stenshorne bagged the victory, making it a perfect day for Rodin Motorsport.
Restarts prove to be extremely difficult
Although the track was just about dry enough once the F2 Feature Race started, it was a cold and very cloudy day in Montréal.
Keeping heat in the tyres and brakes during three Safety Car periods was a huge challenge. In fact, Fittipaldi crashed coming out of the pits on cold tyres.
Speaking in the post-Feature Race press conference to Pit Debrief and other media outlets, Alex Dunne revealed the difficulties and scare he faced on the final restart in the 2026 F2 Canadian GP.
“Yeah, it was very difficult [to keep heat in the tyres].
“I had an issue on the final restart with the brakes. I had the brake alarm on my dash, so I tried to warm the brakes up as much as possible, but no matter what I did, they were too cold for the restart.
“So as soon as I pressed the brake, into turn 13 before the restart, it actually happened pretty much [that] I had no brakes. So the first lap of the restart was very, very difficult.
“But luckily, the pace and the feeling in the car was still good enough to hang on to P2.”
The advantages of the cooler weather
While it was very difficult to get the tyres in the optimal temperature range, the 20-year-old explained how it became an advantage as he worked his way through the pack.
With a lack of degradation on the soft tyre because of the cool conditions, and not overheating in traffic either, it was a flat out effort in the end.
“Yeah, it was very difficult to get the tyres up to temp. I struggled a little bit on the first couple of laps. But I think once they heated up, everything felt pretty good for me, to be honest.
“And then after the issue in the pit lane where I lost a lot of time having to double stack, I wasn’t really doing any management, to be honest. I was just flat out trying to gain as many positions as I could and trying to get to the front as quick as possible.
“But I think because it was so cold, you were allowed to push, you were able to push quite hard. And I think I didn’t really get much of a penalty for pushing so hard.
“I think if I did that yesterday in the Sprint race, we probably would have struggled a little bit more.
“Not a whole lot of management was needed. But I think a lot of that is thanks to the cooler temps.”
Strong pace but not getting the maximum out of the weekend
Fastest in practice, Alex Dunne was set for pole in qualifying until he got held up by Rafael Câmara in the hairpin. Despite that, he still qualified 3rd before a penalty.
While he crossed the line P2 in the Sprint, the Irishman ended up outside the points thanks to a 10-second penalty for spinning Joshua Dürksen out of the race at the hairpin.
Although he was 2nd on Sunday, it could have been much more across the weekend.
“I mean, coming away with P2 in the Feature Race, obviously, it’s not bad, but I think there was more left in it overall.
“You know, I got traffic in qualifying when we could have been on pole. I finished P2 yesterday, but my own mistake took that P2 away from me.
“And then today, because of the grid penalty, which is also my own fault, I had to start P6.
“So being behind Martinius meant we had to double stack during the Safety Car, and so I lost a lot of time in the pit lane.
“So far, there’s just too many mistakes, and they need to be gone.”
Alex Dunne very self-criticial following Feature Race at 2026 F2 Canadian GP
Before Sunday’s 1-2 for Rodin Motorsport at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a lot of points had been left on the table. A collision between Dunne and Stenshorne in Melbourne when battling for the lead in the Feature saw the team lose a potential 43 points.
A small but very costly mistake in wet conditions in Miami saw the 2022 British F4 champion crash out when in the fight for the top 5 at least.
Canada also was a what could have been in the Sprint for Dunne until he made contact with Joshua Dürksen. Instead of bagging eight points, he scored zero.
In response to a question from Pit Debrief how good it felt to finally get a big result, Dunne was analytical and pointed to his own mistakes so far in 2026.
“Yeah, I mean, similar to Martinius.
“Personally, I’m not very happy. But I don’t think there’s anyone else to blame other than myself at the minute.
“So I just need to keep my head down and focus on what we’re doing. Because I think overall, the pace has been very strong.
“And I think Martinius and myself have been the two quickest drivers, but with not a whole lot of points to show for it.
“So yeah, I think at the moment, the only person to blame for that is myself.”
Maximising results
Asked if he thinks the result in Canada can launch a championship charge as the series returns to Europe and get some wins on the board like he could have had in the first three rounds, Alex Dunne says not going for too much and overdriving is key.
With plenty of quick drivers in F2, consistency is hugely important in such a tight and competitive series.
The Irishman also praised his Norwegian teammate for the speed and performances he has to delivered to date. Stenshorne is a former McLaren Development Driver also. He has looked right at home in F2 since his debut in Baku in 2025.
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t say I’m desperate [for a win], but I think it’s definitely possible.
“But no, in saying that, I don’t want to take away from Martinius today either. He did a fantastic job and he deserves the win out of the first three weekends just as much as I do. I think we’ve both been very, very quick.
“So no, I think overall it’s nice to finally finish in the top three and get some points on the board.
“I think overall there’s just a couple of little things that need to be fixed. And I know what they are.
“So I think moving forward, we just need to keep our head down.
“But it’s nice to finally, I think at this point for me, it kind of feels like a second kick-start to the year. We’re only three rounds in, but in saying that, I think the first two rounds, we left a lot on the table.
“So I think moving forward now, we just need to keep it clean. And whether we can finish fifth or tenth or first or whatever, we just need to bring it home.”
Dunne on his enjoyment of the 2026 F2 Canadian GP weekend
For the first time in its history, Formula 2 raced in North America following the cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. First up was Miami, followed by Montréal last weekend.
Alex Dunne admitted to his own surprise that he enjoyed the Canadian week more as he expected overtaking to be more difficult with plenty of medium speed chicanes.
“I really enjoyed it.
“I think already being in Miami was cool, and I really enjoyed that weekend. And I think I enjoyed this one more, which I didn’t necessarily expect.
“I think I also expected the racing here to be a lot harder than what it was, with it being there’s only one long DRS zone, let’s say. And for the rest of it, they’re mainly medium speed corners, and those type of corners usually provide a lot of dirty air in F2.
“So I didn’t expect the racing to be as good as it was. But in the end, coming through the field, it was actually much easier than I expected.
“I wouldn’t call it easy, but there was good opportunities for overtakes, which is cool.”
