Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Alex Dunne claimed to be surprised after he achieved his maiden Formula 2 pole position around the streets of Monaco.
The McLaren junior continued his impressive form to beat Victor Martins by three thousandths of a second, claiming pole at a circuit where qualifying often dictates the outcome of the race.
“Putting it on pole was always going to be difficult,” Dunne told media in the post-qualifying press conference. “I think the further we got into qualifying [the more I thought] it’s going to be pretty difficult to beat what Victor did.
“I thought it would be a battle for second but in the end I managed to put all three sectors together.”
Explaining more, he said: “On my lap I locked up and made a mistake in turn five, and then I locked the rears again in turn six and made another mistake. So one corner after another there was two mistakes. And I kind of thought ‘the pole here is probably going to be difficult’. But every time I looked at the dash, I could see the delta, and I could see that I was still going quicker and quicker.”
Practice had appeared to show Dunne and his Rodin team on the backfoot, finishing over a second off Martins.
“Coming from free practice as well, how fast he [Martins] was, like six tenths clear of P2, so to be honest I thought the pole was going to him.
“The team made some changes to the car overnight from free practice and those changes definitely helped.”
With nearest rival Luke Browning in ninth place, Dunne has the opportunity to extend his championship lead ahead approaching the halfway point at Barcelona.
“I feel really comfortable at the moment,” said Dunne. “Especially in a place like Monaco, being comfortable with your environment and with a car and the balance is really, really important and to be honest every time I’ve asked the team to make a change to the car, the change has done exactly what I’ve wanted it to do and I haven’t felt like I’ve had to chase something.
“I feel like I’m performing at a really good level right now. Up until this point, qualifying has probably been one of our weaker points of the weekend. I’ve struggled slightly with putting that together but I’m glad I saved that for Monaco.
He added: “I think we’re in a championship this year where all the drivers are very, very good and you know you’re never really going to be in the scenario where you can always put it on pole and do a lap so I’m glad we managed it today.”
Dunne was investigated after qualifying together with Rafael Villagomez for an incident at the final corner that left the former in the barriers and triggered a red flag. Stewards judged that Dunne was too optimistic in attempting an overtake, but that Villagomez was driving unpredictably, and therefore deemed neither was wholly to blame.