Formula 2: Alex Dunne wins his first victory
The 200th anniversary Formula 2 race took place in Bahrain today, and it had everything that many people love about this youth series: dashing overtaking, fighting for the podium and places in the top ten from start to finish, but there were no dramatic accidents. Maybe it's for the best.
In the heat of the Middle East, it was not easy for all participants in the main race of the second stage of the season, but most of them are already quite experienced professionals and did a good job, and Alex Dunne, a McLaren youth program driver, distinguished himself. But first things first.
Leonardo Fornaroli, the reigning F3 champion, started from pole position for Invicta Racing this year, but next to his yellow car in the front row was Victor Martin's Dallara, which is really unlucky this year, and, of course, the French ART racer really wanted this streak to finally end..
But he frankly did not start well, allowing the driving wheels to slip violently, and immediately lost five positions, but Fornaroli calmly led the peloton. He was chased by Alex Dunne, who started from 4th position, but the Italian rider pulled away by more than a second after just one lap. Dunne, in turn, was one and a half seconds ahead of Rafael Villagomes, and Roman Stanek was already starting to put pressure on him.
That is, the first two were clearly faster than the others, which actually meant little, since the temperature degradation of rubber is very high on this track, and the one who does not take care of it, at a later stage the race stage will regret it. We can say that this is exactly what happened to Fornaroli.
One of the losers of Sunday's race was Richard Fershor, who distinguished himself yesterday: on Saturday, the Dutch MP Motorsport racer had a great sprint and climbed to the second step of the podium. He started from 6th position today, but it looks like there was some kind of technical glitch on his car, and he rolled back to a distant 13th position.
By lap 6, Dunne had almost caught up with Fornaroli, and at the beginning of lap 7, he was able to get ahead at the end of the start-finish straight due to DRS. Leonardo practically did not resist – either he decided not to push yet and save the rubber, or on the contrary, his soft tires were already beginning to lose efficiency.
On the same lap, Pepe Marti was ahead of Villagomes, and Martin followed suit, trying his best to recoup. Victor started the eighth round fourth, and he was only half a second away from Marty, and it was expected that another attack would follow soon.
In the middle of the peloton, there was a very vivid showdown between Joshua Durksen, Dino Beganovic and Fershor, whose car seemed to be working normally now. The three of them were fighting for the 10th position, which was still held by the Paraguayan racer AIX Racing, but both rivals were pressing him very actively. Joshua managed to fight back, but Beganovic passed Fershor ahead, which also happened at the end of the main straight using DRS.
On lap 13, the mandatory pit stops began. As is often the case in F2, the leaders were in no hurry to get fresh tires, and the riders from the middle of the peloton went first. However, Martin preferred to get hard rubber from the top five right now, although there was still more than half the distance to the finish. Victor returned to the track in tenth place.
Durksen was unlucky in the pits: there was a hitch at the pit stop, the mechanics could not immediately fix the rear right wheel, and because of this he rolled back to 19th position.
On lap 16, Fornaroli and Marty, who were riding second and third, were invited to the pits, after which they returned to the track in the same order, but only behind Martin, who was ahead of both due to an earlier pit stop - Victor started the second half of the race in 8th position.
On lap 17, Dunne also visited the pits, returning to the track in front of Martin, and since almost everyone had already made their pit stops, Alex was already driving second, and Victor was driving less than a second behind him and was clearly preparing an attack.
On the next lap, Dunn led the peloton again, Martin was second, Fornaroli was third, and Luke Browning successfully overtook Marty and moved up to 4th position.
On lap 19, it became known about Sebastian Montoya's 5-second penalty, although before that the son of the former racer had successfully overtaken Villagomes, but it was only a fight for 13th position.
On lap 21, Browning put the squeeze on Fornaroli and took away third position from him, after which he immediately pulled away for almost a second: it was clear that Luke was seriously determined to compete for the podium.
But there was no particular struggle for the first position, because Alex Dunne was confidently in the lead, having already pulled away from Martin by five seconds. However, there were still ten laps left before the finish, and the situation could still change, which happened on the next lap. Luke Browning overtook the French racer ART, who received the second set of tires earlier, therefore, his tires were already more worn out. Moreover, Leonard Fornaroli was already riding close behind Victor and was also ready to make his claims to the podium.
There was also a struggle for the last prize positions: Durksen rode 11th, attacked John Bennett, who was in 9th place, but together with Joshua, the British racer Van Amersfoort Racing was attacked by Roman Stanek and Oliver Goethe. Just a lap later, Durksen moved up to 9th position, Stanek to 10th, and Arvid Lidblad beat Goethe to 11th.
Moreover, Arvid did not stop there and followed ahead of two rivals and already rushed after Durksen. On lap 29, he overtook Joshua as well.
On the same lap, Fornaroli still made a successful attack against Martin and was already riding third. The theory was confirmed that the rubber on Victor's car was already completely worn out, which Pepe Marti immediately took advantage of and pushed the Frenchman to fifth position.
By the last lap, Marty had caught up with Fornaroli, and he tried to beat him at the end of the start-finish straight, but it didn't work out. Pepe then continued to push the Italian into the remaining corners, while Alex Dunne was the first to cross the finish line, taking his first Formula 2 victory.
Luke Browning took second place, which he was very happy about, and Leonardo Fornaroli was still able to defend the third position without giving it to Marty, no matter how hard he tried.
Zach Brown, executive director of McLaren Racing, was one of the first to congratulate Alex on his victory, which meant that the young racer was already considered quite "one of his own" in the Woking team, and today he justified her trust.
Race results
Pilot
The Time Team/Difference
1. A.Dunne
Rodin Motorsport
59"40.123
2. L.Browning
Hitech GP
+8.244
3. L.Fornaroli
Invicta Racing
+19.433
4. X.Marty
Campos Racing
+19.867
5. V.Martin
ART Grand Prix
+23.119
6. Fershor river
MP Motorsport
+23.573
7. D.Beganovich
Hitech GP
+24.137
8. A.Lindblad
Campos Racing
+26.725
9. G.Mini
Prema
+34.945
10. D.Durksen
AIX Racing
+37.860
11. O.Goethe
MP Motorsport
+41.095
12. R.Villagomes
Van Amersfoort Racing
+43.201
13. A.Kordil
Rodin Motorsport
+44.469
14. R.Miata
ART Grand Prix
+46.571
15. S.Megetunif
Trident
+47.403
16. D. Crawford
DAMS
+47.705
17. R.Stanek
Invicta Racing
+48.633
18. K.Maini
DAMS
+52.956
19. S.Montoya
Prema
+55.667
20. D.Bennett
Van Amersfoort Racing
+55.991
21. M.Esterson
Trident
+58.288
22. K. Shields
AIX Racing
+1'09.975
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