Irish and Rodin Motorsport driver Alex Dunne secured his third F2 pole — and first of 2026 — for Feature Race 1 at the Azerbaijan GP.
Despite qualifying in the top 4 in every single session this campaign — outside of Hungary when he had a suspension failure — the 20-year-old bagged his first pole since Spa last year.
Early in Qualifying 1, the Alpine Junior logged a 1:55.383. Although there was over 12 minutes remaining when he posted that time, nobody could beat it. Teammate Martinius Stenshorne fell short by less than half a tenth as Rodin Motorsport annexed the front row for Friday’s first Feature contest.
Alex Dunne thrilled by first pole of 2026 F2 season at Azerbaijan GP
While he has been outstandingly consistent over a lap this campaign, the Irishman has consistently just fallen short of bagging pole positions and the two points for getting one.
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other media outlets post-qualifying at the 2026 F2 Azerbaijan GP round, the driver of car #15 was delighted to finally get a pole in 2026.
He also credited his Rodin Motorsport for the mega car they gave him and his Norwegian teammate.
“I’m very happy, I think this is probably the first time I’ve properly smiled all year. I mean I’m very very pleased.
“I think obviously it shows that the team have done a fantastic job with the car as well, the fact that we’ve been we were one-two in both qualis. Obviously as drivers we did a good job, but I think in terms of team performance that’s also pretty impressive from the team side as well. So I think credit goes just as much to them as it does to myself.
“I’m very happy. I think to finally have the opportunity to put it all together and put it on pole feels really nice.”
Track position and slipstreams
Even though Baku is a street circuit and features some slow-speed sections, the longest straight on the calendar at the end of the lap means a slipstream is absolutely vital. There is also a pretty long straight between turns 2 and 3.
During Qualifying 1, most drivers almost came to a stop out of turn 6 to avoid being the lead car to hand out tows on a push lap. Many drivers, including Dunne, got noted for it. However, no penalties got handed out.
Dunne explained the difficulties of managing track position and making sure to get a slipstream from a competitive driver. On his pole lap, the driver from Offaly was behind Kush Maini.
“It’s quite tricky.
“I think at least on my side I was always behind someone but I never really had the perfect slipstream. I think the slipstream I had in Q1 was a lot better than what I had in Q2.
“But then it’s always difficult to manage because if you’re behind someone who’s maybe a little bit slower than you then through the lap you might end up closer than what you’d ideally like to be which compromises sector two but then you gain it back in sector three.
“So yeah, I mean it was it was quite tricky. There was a lot more of a traffic jam let’s say than what I expected.
“I think in Q1 coming out of T6 we were all in a line. And at one point I thought there was going to be a crash because everyone was going so slow. In Q2 was the same thing coming out of 15 where a lot of people slowed down, so it was quite difficult to manage.”
Getting a tow imperative around Baku
“I would say here it was probably more difficult than Monza because here I would say slipstream is even more important than Monza and Monza is the one that everyone talks about for traffic management and things like that. It was surprisingly more difficult than what it was last year I would say.
“But in the end you know a pole and a P2, I can’t really complain.”
Dunne trying to close the gap in the 2026 F2 championship at the Azerbaijan GP
Pole position for Feature Race 1 has put Alex Dunne within 36 points of championship leader Nikola Tsolov ahead of the three contests that take place this weekend. It could be the final round of the season if Qatar and Abu Dhabi are cancelled.
The young Irishman is looking to absolutely maximise everything this weekend in his attempts to claw himself back into the fight with the Bulgarian, Câmara and Minì, should the two Middle East rounds happen.
“I think it’s a good way to go about the end of the year or towards the end of the year.
“I think after Madrid it was kind of the first weekend where it all kind of came together again, and we made good progress in terms of catching the guys in front in the championship. The gap is still relatively big.
“But I think after that weekend I said I’ll make sure I leave nothing out there for the rest of the season and try and close the gap as much as possible. So far, we’ve started in a good way. But we can just do what we can do, what will be will be.
“We’ve done a good job in qualifying and hopefully we can continue that in the races, and then we’ll see where we end up.”
Hopeful that long run speed is back to last year
Since Formula 2 returned to Europe, Rodin Motorsport have had struggles in race pace, consistently lacking to Campos and Invicta, and even other teams like ART and TRIDENT at times. The 20-year-old has gone backwards in Feature Races because of high tyre degradation.
However, in Madrid, Dunne finished 2nd after starting P2. He set fastest lap and pulled away from the field with race winner Dino Beganovic.
In the 2026 F2 Azerbaijan GP post-qualifying press conference with Pit Debrief and other media outlets, Alex Dunne explained the progress in the Spanish capital last time out and his hopes it carries into this weekend.
“I think so.
“As good as this feels for both of us, for myself and Martinius, and for the whole team, I think quali has not really been the area that’s been the focus or the area that we needed to work on.
“I think clearly this weekend we in in terms of quali we obviously have maybe a little bit more than what we’ve had in other rounds. But in other rounds I’ve been in the top three [almost] every weekend, so I think qualifying is not necessarily the the key area of focus or the area where we needed to improve. And I think the the races have been more more of a talking point.”
Alex Dunne on F2 race pace progress
“But Madrid was was a very strong step in the right direction. I kind of felt back to normal let’s say when I was driving in the Sprint Race and in the Feature Race. The feeling I had in the car and the pace I had, I felt like I was as comfortable as I was last year which was a very good sign.
“And I hope we we’ve carried that forward this weekend. Obviously I’m not going to know until we start in the Sprint Race, but I believe we’ve made a couple of good steps.
“Of course it’s very hard to say, but I think based on all the work that we’ve done through the last couple of weekends, what we’ve done on the sim as well, hopefully we’ve made good progress. But I think we have.”
