“We know where we need to go”: Dunne encouraged by pace after topping F2 Free Practice at Monza

After topping Free Practice, Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne heads into Qualifying at the tenth round of the 2026 F2 season in Monza hoping to secure another strong result later today. The Irishman topped the session with a 1:31.957, finishing almost two tenths clear of Oliver Goethe in P2, while Nicolás Varrone rounded out the top three.

Despite a red flag ending the session prematurely, Dunne consistently demonstrated competitive pace from the outset. Reflecting on his session, the Rodin driver said: “It’s a good way to start. It’s only Free Practice, so it doesn’t really mean a whole lot, but the pace was good.”

“I’m quite surprised by the gap from me to P3, that it was half a second. But then from P3 to P10 was two tenths, which is more what you would expect.”

“It’s nice to see that we have a good amount of pace, but I imagine it’s going to get a lot closer. I don’t expect it to be that comfortable in quali.”

Dunne: “Car felt really good” in Free Practice

Looking ahead to Qualifying later this afternoon, Dunne acknowledged that the team still has areas to improve and expects rivals to find more pace and close the gap. However, he remained positive about the session after putting together several strong laps.

“There’s a couple of things we can improve on, but I’m sure the other teams will find some stuff that they can do better for quali as well, and we’re on a different compound.”

“We didn’t get to do many laps, but the laps that we did do were good ones. So it was fun.”

“It wasn’t too bad. I was in a good place on track, so I avoided all the chaos and the mess, and I just got to do my own thing and focus on driving rather than getting stuck in a car park in a traffic jam.”, Dunne said when asked about how he navigated traffic throughout the session.

“So, it was good. I’m happy, the car felt really good, and I felt like I was driving well as well. Usually, most of the time, when we put those two things together, the end result is pretty good. So, if we can have a good quali, that’d be nice.”

Nailing track position key for Qualifying

The Irishman highlighted how crucial it will be to position himself well and secure a tow during his flying laps. Dunne felt his strong track positioning across his three push laps left him well prepared for Qualifying. With a clearer understanding of what improvements need to be made ahead of Qualifying, he heads into the session confident in the team’s preparation.

“I think it’s just to have a good tow, but you need to have a good tow behind someone who is fast.”

“If you put yourself behind someone who is a second off, you’re going to be in trouble by the end of the lap. So, I think finding yourself in a good position with a strong tow behind someone who can keep the pace up through the lap as well so that you don’t find yourself in a difficult position come the end of the lap.”

He added: “This is what we managed to do pretty well on all three push laps that I had today. We were all in the right track position, which is nice. So, I think we’ve prepped ourselves well for quali and we know where we need to go, which is nice.”