Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne continued his strong qualifying run with a P3 for the F2 Feature Race at the 2026 Belgian GP.
Although he was officially P21 in practice, that hid his strong pace. Track limits at the final corner multiple times saw him lose 2nd place.
In qualifying itself, he held a 0.2s advantage on the first run over Rafael Câmara and Nikola Tsolov. He was on a very strong lap on the second set of tyres before Laurens van Hoepen’s Trident broke down on the start-finish straight, causing a red flag.
Despite being on fairly worn tyres due to the supersoft rapidly degging off at Spa, the Irish driver managed to do a lap good enough for 3rd, just under 0.2s off the pole position time set by his Brazilian rival.
Alex Dunne believes P1 was coming his way before stoppage happened in F2 qualifying at 2026 Belgian GP
Speaking in the post-qualifying press conference to Pit Debrief and other media outlets, Dunne was not completely satisfied as he felt pole was within range.
“No, not really [satisfied with the result].
“I think ultimately the red flag I think is what stopped us from being on pole today, I think my lap when the red flag came out was around two tenths quicker, I was two tenths up on what I did on my best lap.
“And then on the last one, because I’d already basically completed a full push lap, I’d taken quite a lot out of the tyres
“So in theory it was my second run on that same set. Overall the grip was lacking quite a bit on the last final lap, which of course didn’t help, but I think in the end still to be P3 is not the end of the world.”
The Irishman questions tyre selection for Spa
For this weekend, Formula 2 brought the supersoft and medium compounds to the legendary Belgian venue.
With plenty of high-speed corners in the middle sector of the lap, it puts big strain on the softest compound, lesding to very high degradation quite quickly.
Alex Dunne expects everyone who starts on the supersoft on Sunday — providing it’s dry — to box at the end of lap six in the 2026 F2 Belgian GP Feature Race.
“We’ll have to wait and see [on the deg].
“I think personally I’m not sure if changing to supersoft was the right choice, I think the degradation on soft last year was already on the higher side. For whatever reason we decided to go to an even softer compound, so I’m not really sure what the decision behind that was, but in my opinion it wasn’t the right one.
“So definitely I think you know the pit window opens on lap six and I imagine the majority of the grid will be in on lap six because I expect the deg on the super soft to be really high.”
The trade-off faced at the iconic Belgian venue
At Spa-Francorchamps, there is always a decision to be made on set-up and particularly wing levels. Do you trim a bit of downforce to be rapid on the straights and hold on in the middle sector, or do you put on more downforce and hope the race comes to you with superior pace and tyre life?
While Alex Dunne would not go into details, he did mention the supersoft as the big unknown for the 2026 F2 Belgian GP Feature Race.
“Yeah I mean we’ll have to wait and see.
“I think in terms of set-up direction it wouldn’t be very useful for myself and the team if I came and told you what direction we’re going in the press conference. I mean we’ll have to wait and see.
“Obviously the deg is going to be pretty high. I think tomorrow will be good learnings over the Sprint.
“But, of course, I think the big challenge is going to be the supersoft. I think what we’ll see on the medium should be relatively normal in terms of what we experienced in previous weekends and previous years.
“But I think the one thing that everybody will have the question mark over that we’re not really going to get to test is the supersoft on Sunday.”
Drastic set-up changes for Alex Dunne and Rodin Motorsport to try and solve race pace headaches
In eight rounds so far in 2026, the Alpine junior has finished inside the top 4 in every qualifying session before any penalties got applied.
However, unlike in 2025, race pace and good tyre life has not been great since the series returned to Europe. While the Irish driver has shown good tyre management throughout his career, the machinery has been very tricky on Sunday’s recently.
Dunne revealed Rodin Motorsport made significant changes to the car ahead of the Feature contest at Silverstone as they try to find what they had last year. Although it led to a very solid P4 at the British round, nobody could touch championship leader Nikola Tsolov once more.
The driver of car #15 is hopeful that they can continue to make progress as they try to fully understand what the issues have been, pointing to the tyres.
“I think quali has been very very strong this year, but I think something has changed with the tyres.
“So I think the philosophy we had in how we set up the car hasn’t quite worked to the same as what we had last year.
“I mean for the Feature Race in Silverstone we basically had to flip the car on its head and completely change the whole set-up to try and find something and figure out what was going on, because I think last year our race pace was one of our strongest things and so far this year it’s been one of our weakest.
“And you know I think the team understand what they’re doing and I haven’t all of a sudden forgotten how to manage tyres either.
“I think something has changed and we’re just kind of trying to figure out exactly what that is. We’ve made pretty big changes recently and I think we’re we have a good idea of where we need to make a step forward.
“I think the Feature Race in Silverstone was already a little bit better not quite where we want to be in comparison to Niko [Tsolov] let’s say.
“In general our pace over the last couple of rounds I think we have found something a little bit that’s hopefully going to make it better moving forward.
“But I’ll only find out if that’s true or not on Sunday.”
A remarkable level of consistency in F2 qualifying continues for Alex Dunne at the 2026 Belgian GP
Since making his Formula 2 debut at the Australian GP last year, Alex Dunne has qualified in the top 10 at every single round bar Abu Dhabi, the final round of 2025. He has been one of the fastest and most consistent drivers on a Friday in both seasons.
In 2026, the lowest he has qualified is P4, a step even compared to last season.
When told by Pit Debrief about it and asked about the cars Rodin have given him to display his speed and talent, Alex Dunne was extremely thankful of the work done by them.
He also feels it has been easier to get good qualifying results in 2026, even though he had two poles by this stage last year.
“It’s a pretty cool stat actually. I didn’t know that.
“Qualifying has been really strong. I think last year as a rookie I think I was in the top six majority of the time. And then this year apart from Miami we’ve been in top three every weekend. So yeah, I think qualifying has been really strong.
“I think Rodin and I have a really good understanding of the direction we want to go in for quali and the direction I also need as a driver to get the most out of the tyres over one lap. So I think in that sense we’ve been delivering really well and we understand each other and what areas we need to improve or what areas we needed to improve.
“I think last year quali was good but this year we’ve definitely made a step, and I think in terms of driving as well I’m doing a better job of putting it together every weekend.
“I think the only thing we need to improve on at the moment is race pace. In terms of qualifying there’s not a whole lot more I could ask for and not a whole lot more I would change.
“So I’m happy and I’m proud of the job we’re doing and I’m proud of what the team are doing as well.”
Spa-Francorchamps a favourite for Alex Dunne
Ever since making his single-seater debut at Spa in 2021 when he took pole position in Spanish F4, this track has been a strong one for the Irishman.
In his first year in F2 in 2025, he took pole and won on the road, before a post-race penalty dropped him down to 9th.
He also won twice in GB3 around it, as well as getting a front row in F3 in 2024.
Dunne talked about his love for the track and what makes him so good around it.
“Spa has always been one of my favourites. It probably is my favourite track, to be honest. It’s definitely one I enjoy the most.
“I mean I think in terms of general pace and performance what we showed in quali today has not necessarily been a whole lot more outstanding than what we’ve had this year in general.
“Last year we were on pole by four tenths but I think that’s not something that happens very often. I think coming into this weekend I definitely didn’t expect for that to happen again. I think that’s quite rare.
“Like I said, Spa is one of my favourite tracks. It’s a place I always really enjoy.
“You know coming from F4, GB3, F3 and now in F2, it’s always a place I love coming to. High speed tracks are definitely ones I always enjoy the most.”
