Dunne “couldn’t really have asked for more” after emotional Friday in Baku
“There were times in the year when I questioned whether or not it was even going to happen.”
Rodin Motorsport and Alex Dunne will know, by their own admissions, that 2026 has been a tougher season than anticipated. On multiple occasions, the team have had to pull out all the stops to find and recover lost ground over a race weekend.
One prime example came at Silverstone, when Dunne and Rodin Motorsport had to “flip the car on its head”; the scale of the troubles and challenges the British outfit faced was immense, as they sought an answer to their struggles.
Yet, despite positive pace late into Silverstone’s Feature Race, problems cropped up at the subsequent round at the Hungaroring. Suspension issues limited Dunne to only 17th on the grid that weekend, leaving him extremely disconsolate with no points.
It’s extremely rare for any racer of Dunne’s calibre to have such struggles. In fact, the Hungaroring marked only the third weekend that the Irishman left with no points. It also left a blot on his pristine record of qualifying in the top four at every race.
Dunne isn’t someone who has forgotten a thing or two about being at the front and winning races, though. Memories of his superlative drives in Bahrain and Imola back in a groundbreaking rookie campaign gave the world a hint of just what he was capable of.
The Irishman is also a driver who loves pulling off bold overtakes, a hard-charger. But this season, Dunne has faced a sterner challenge, often not having the ultimate pace to pull off a trademark attacking drive.
This has ultimately seen him take a calmer approach through the races, not out of choice, but due to the circumstances he often found himself in. “There's no point doing anything crazy, because you're just going to put yourself even further backwards than where you already are,” Dunne responded to DIVEBOMB after Friday’s Feature Race 1.
“I think a lot of me being more calm and not going for any big moves, most of the time I was too slow to do anything anyway,” he continued.
Yet, despite the inherent struggles, it proved a blessing in disguise for Dunne. He has banked four runner-up finishes over the course of the season, avoiding high-risk overtakes and putting everything on the line. The most prominent instance of this change in mindset came as early as Canada, when the Irishman radioed to the team to work together and secure a 1-2 finish.
While street circuits are often an anomaly and an unpredictable aspect, both Rodin drivers had played their cards right in qualifying on Thursday. F2’s mega Baku weekend featured two qualifying sessions, swept clean by the British outfit. Securing the unprecedented result of a 1-2 in both qualifying sessions, it was easy to make out the delight in the Rodin camp.
But Dunne aimed to wait for the races to understand if Rodin’s pace was ephemeral, or it was genuine. Qualifying had been less of a woe for the Irishman, as evidenced by his pristine record and average result of 3.69 in the sessions.
“It's going to be very hard to tell until we do a few laps in the sprint race tomorrow (Friday) morning,” Dunne had said, speaking to DIVEBOMB after Thursday’s qualifying sessions. “If our pace ends up as it has been in other rounds, I'd be surprised, to be honest.”
On this supersized Baku weekend, though, Rodin Motorsport had dialled in to the characteristics of the Baku streets much quicker than most. Dunne’s words were proven otherwise, even as early as the first laps of the sprint.
Sprint races have been Dunne’s kryptonite, and have formed a part of his difficulties over the course of the season. Despite scoring two third-places in Saturday’s sprints, the Rodin man had accumulated only 26 points from the sprints, up until the Baku round.
But on this day in Baku, Dunne, who was also determined to continue challenging for the title, showcased an excellent turn of pace. A good start got him ahead of his teammate, before the melee at Turn 2 saw Mari Boya out. This promoted Dunne up to eighth on the road, already into the points-paying positions.
Yet, the best part of his race was still one straight ahead. Dunne, who had taken a cautious approach going into Turn 2 to avoid the spinning PREMA Racing car, then positioned himself right behind the Campos of Noel León ahead. As the duo approached ART’s Kush Maini in the slipstream, Dunne lunged to the inside, claiming both places in one corner.
But as he admitted, it was a risky move, an unplanned overtake due to his cold brakes. “I didn't slow down as much as I had anticipated, and I ended up arriving at the apex a lot quicker than what I wanted.”
Such was the confidence of the Irishman; though, he nearly attempted a similar move on Sebastián Montoya and championship rival Rafael Câmara at Turn 3. He only made up one overtake this time, up into fifth.
Câmara’s moment of going wide at Turn 16 a few laps later allowed Dunne to surge past the Invicta man, who was crucially carrying a 10-second time penalty for his incident on the opening lap. Another overtake on then-championship leader Nikola Tsolov put Dunne up into a superb third, with eight laps remaining.
A long distance for a sprint, but the Irishman fell slightly short of race-winner Dino Beganovic and second-placed Laurens van Hoepen in this race for victory. But if anything, this race showcased the more traditional, charging aspect of Dunne’s driving.
Third on the road delivered a best sprint result since F2’s Miami weekend, but Friday morning’s race delivered a pleasant surprise for Dunne and Rodin Motorsport. “I picked everyone off quite quickly and got to P3 a lot earlier than what I would have expected,” Dunne expressed, taken aback by his progress through the season.
This was only an inkling of the Feature Race to come later on Friday. Dunne started the Feature Race 1 from the much sought-after pole position slot. Pole-sitters had triumphed in the last three Baku Feature Races, and Dunne fancied adding to this tally.
Both Rodin drivers came into this weekend’s races with one strict instruction from team manager Benn Huntingford: “Please don't crash into each other.” A strict instruction with Rodin’s drivers taking each other out in Australia’s season opener still fresh in their minds.
But Dunne and Stenshorne, who had cleared the air shortly after, ensured they cleared the start of the race without incident. Dunne, who had vowed not to leave anything on the table in his quest to close down the gap in the standings, immediately cleared away from his teammate in second. The gap grew to almost three seconds between both Rodin cars by Lap 7.
Even as his teammate made a pit stop for new hard tyres, Dunne carried on, confident of maintaining his pace for longer into the race. But this was his day, and for the second Feature Race in a row, he benefitted from a mid-race safety car.
As he rejoined behind MP Motorsport’s Ollie Goethe, this is where Dunne’s second layer of driving came into play. The restraint to avoid being tempted into an overtake was evident off the safety car restart.
Even as the front trio retained their positions, chaos ensued further behind. A multi-car pile-up at Turn 3 triggered yet another infamous red flag around Baku, and halting the race for almost 20 minutes, as the stricken cars were moved away.
This did little to deter Dunne’s focus, as he managed to get a toilet break out of the way, before looking ahead to the bigger goal. “You just reset and go again so it didn't change the world for me,” he expressed.
With the race now running to time, and 18 minutes left on the clock, Dunne began his run for victory, looking for a clean route past Goethe. He attempted to go around the outside on the restart, but this was to no avail. Despite running close into Turn 3 on much grippier hard tyres, Dunne opted not to replicate his moves from the sprint, with plenty at stake.
Such was the new element of control he had developed over the course of the season, and Dunne patiently waited for the right moment to make his move. With 10 minutes on the clock, he found himself comfortably within the slipstream of Goethe’s MP Motorsport, before easily pulling out to the right and making his way past.
This was his only hurdle to overcome, in a bid to win his first race of the season. And as it turned out, this result proved crucial for him in the context of his championship bid.
While Dunne pulled out a gap immediately, championship rival Câmara had found himself entrenched in traffic, falling behind the likes of Beganovic, Stenshorne and León. His fellow Alpine junior Gabriele Minì was only on the fringes of the top 10, having ascended to ninth at the time.
Meanwhile, championship leader Tsolov’s race had gone from bad to worse, as a terrible pit stop saw him then fall victim to the collision at Turn 3 that brought out the red flag.
This meant Dunne, who had almost counted himself out of the championship a few rounds ago, found himself in prime position to get back into the fray. “As far as I was concerned, there was no way of even getting close,” Dunne remarked, speaking after Feature Race 1.
He eventually held on to take victory by over four seconds to teammate Stenshorne, rounding out a red letter day for the Rodin outfit. It was an emotional first win of the campaign for Dunne, though, having braved through several weekends of searching for that extra pace in order to reach the top of the podium.
For Dunne, this was his first weekend of the season that featured multiple trips to the podium, and to top it off, he scored the point for the fastest lap, fittingly set on the last lap of the Feature Race.
The result brought the Irishman well into contention for the championship, as he sits only eight points behind new championship leader Câmara, after a fantastic day of racing in Baku. For a driver left wondering if he was ever going to find the dream result, and who had mentally switched himself off from a championship result, he now stands within touching distance of leading the standings altogether.
“I think so far we couldn't have really asked for much more,” Dunne expressed, beyond delighted with his result. “I think the team have done a really good job in turning it around.”
For all the joys of Friday, Dunne and Rodin Motorsport have another opportunity to capitalise on their excellent pace throughout the Baku weekend. Starting from the front row for Feature Race 2 on Saturday, both Rodin drivers will fancy a shot at another victory, and cap off an unprecedented weekend of racing.
As Dunne puts it in his quest for the championship, it’s “Game on,” with only eight points separating the top three in the standings.
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