4 days ago
- Automotive
- Irish Daily Mirror
Irish driver Alex Dunne qualifies 5th in Spain but hit with big penalties
Alex Dunne qualified in 5th place for the Spanish F2 Grand Prix in Barcelona, with Arvid Lindblad becoming the youngest pole-sitter in F2 history.
However Dunne will serve a 13-place grid penalty for the sprint race on Saturday, leaving him in P18, and a separate 3-place drop means he will start from 8th place on the grid for Sunday's feature race.
The championship leader Luke Browning qualified in 8th, which will become P7 after the penalties are applied.
Dunne received a 3-place penalty for both Barcelona races after misjudging the pace of Victor Martins as both cars entered the pit lane, with the Offaly teenager making contact with the back of the Frenchman's car as he slammed on the brakes.
The 10-place grid penalty for the sprint race due to his role in the Monaco pile-up last time out is added to the 3-place penalty, resulting in a 13-place drop for the Rodin Motorsport driver.
With 8 penalty points on his license, he now runs the risk of a race ban should he reach 12 points.
Dunne's first lap, a 1:25.905, was good enough for 5th position after all the cars had set a time, with the Offaly man setting the early pace.
The McLaren Driver Development Programme driver went out early during the final runs, setting a lap good enough for P2 with a 1:25.602 in the early stages before he was overtaken by Sebastian Montoya, Kush Maini, Roman Stanek and the polesitter Lindblad.
Meanwhile, practice is ongoing in F1 with a much-touted technical directive on front wing flexion coming into effect this weekend.
The change aims to tighten the cars together, but so far in practice, it seems that the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are still on top.
The F2 sprint race begins at 1:15pm Irish time on Saturday, while the feature race goes lights out at 9am on Sunday.
