Rodin Motorsport and Irish driver Alex Dunne has qualified on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s Feature race at the F2 British GP. He missed out on pole to Victor Martins by 0.065s.
A strong F2 British GP qualifying but more in the tank says Alex Dunne
After finishing outside the top 10 in practice, things did not start great for Dunne in qualifying either as he found himself in that exact same position following his first flying lap.
However, he made big steps over the next two runs. First he went P3. Then on his final flier, the Irishman went 2nd as he set a purple middle sector.
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other media outlets after qualifying, Dunne explained how set-up changes from practice helped him feel more comfortable come qualifying.
“Yeah, I mean, I guess it’s not bad.
“No, overall, I think that the pace has always been there to be on the front row. It’s just more about things clicking and putting it together.
“I think in the end today, I was a little bit disappointed. My lap wasn’t great, to be honest. I think there was quite a decent amount of room for improvement, which is always not a bad position to be in going into Sunday.
“But no, I think generally the pace was pretty good.
“I think in FP, we missed a little bit, so we made some changes that worked. And during quali, we made some changes that also made it a little bit better.
“So, happy to be on the front row.”
Alex Dunne explains why he felt he missed out on pole at the F2 British GP
Asked about where he could have found more time to take pole position, the McLaren junior explained how a big snap out of Luffield because of gravel left on the track by another car hampered him.
“I think there was a little bit of areas in driving.
“And then also, I can’t remember who, but a car in front of me out of turn 7 made a mistake and the track was covered in gravel. I got quite a big snap and lost quite a bit of time there.
“So I think without that, there was already another chunk of lap time that could have been gained.
“So yeah, I mean, these things happen. Quali is not always going to go exactly how you want it to.
“And I think in the end, P2 is still a good place to be.”
No desperation for a quick turnaround for Alex Dunne after Austria disqualification
There was a big blow to the 19-year-old’s title hopes as he lost P2 in Austria due to a technical infringement. With championship leader Richard Verschoor winning the race, it leaves him 24 points off the title lead heading into this weekend.
The Rodin driver explained he had no problems with the team pushing everything to the limit. He did not feel they were desperate for a bounce back as the pace has been strong all year.
“Pretty good [to be straight at the front after Austria].
“You know, I wasn’t really thinking about Austria or anything coming to this weekend. I don’t really feel like we needed to bounce back because the weekend was still really good.
“Of course, we had a disappointing end result after the Feature race. But I think to me, I wasn’t too upset or disappointed about it. These things happen.
“I said to the team, I don’t blame them for pushing the limits and things like this can happen all the time.
“So yeah, our pace has always been strong. So I don’t think it was something we just needed to bounce back from. We just needed to do the same thing we’ve done every weekend, which we did. And the result was good.”
Alex Dunne on tyre degradation ahead of the F2 British GP races
Silverstone has plenty of high speed corners, putting a lot of stress on the tyres.
Along with strong pace, good tyre management is key, much like last weekend in Austria.
Asked by Pit Debrief about the challenge they face, Dunne says they have the experience to deal with it now.
Nonetheless, he is aware of how challenging it is around Silverstone.
“I think we’re all fairly used to it by now.
“I think this track is probably going to be one of the trickier ones with there. You know, there’s a lot of high speed corners, so there’s a lot of load and a lot of energy being put through the tyres.
“And I can imagine people are going to struggle with graining and also the thermal in the rears. So it’ll be tricky to manage.
“But I think all of us have done plenty of races now to understand exactly what we need to do to manage that.
“And I’m sure it’ll be difficult, but no harder than what we’ve had already.”
