‘We’re definitely in the fight’ says Dunne after race-winning Baku weekend

Alexander Dunne was admittedly slightly disappointed with how his weekend in Baku ended but acknowledged what a positive few days he and Rodin Motorsport had in Azerbaijan.

The Irish driver impressively took pole position in Qualifying 1 and achieved podiums in all three races – including a victory in Feature Race 1.

Dunne also took the chequered flag first in the second Feature Race but a five-second time penalty for crossing the while line ahead of pit lane entry dropped him to third in the classification.

Reflecting on it all, Dunne admitted being a bit downbeat about Saturday’s result, but took plenty of positives from a strong three days of running.

“When you look at it as a whole, it was a pretty spectacular weekend,” said Dunne. “But after the penalty in the Feature Race, I left the weekend a bit upset and a bit disappointed.

“That is not something I ever thought I would say considering I had a pole, a front row for the second Feature Race, and three out of three podiums.

“If you offered me that as a whole before the weekend had started, I would have absolutely taken it. Still, naturally, it's a standard racing driver thing that there was an opportunity for a little bit more, so I was a bit disappointed.

“But if you look back on it as a whole, the weekend was super strong. The team did a great job. The car was really, really strong in all conditions. In FP, we were really quick, in quali, we were quick, and all three races, we were fast as well.

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“In terms of feeling and car performance, you can't really ask for a whole lot more. Apart from the penalty, in terms of pace and driving-wise on track, I was able to maximise what they gave me as well, which of course is always the goal when the car is good.”

Looking back at Feature Race 1, Dunne achieved his first victory of the season with a dominant performance, winning by 4.3s to teammate Martinius Stenshorne.

Starting from pole is not always a guaranteed place for success around Baku with the long DRS straights, but Dunne felt he and the team handled things well.

“The Supersoft stint was particularly strong,” he explained. "In general, the Supersoft, the softer compound of tyre stints normally is something that I'm quite good at, and I was able to capitalise on that quite a lot in the first Feature Race.

“I probably expected it to be a little bit harder and to have a bit more of a fight with Martinius. I expected there to be a little bit more of a battle and for it to be more difficult to get out of DRS, but I had a good start.

“Martinius and Noel were fighting with each other, which gave me a little bit of a gap, and then once I realised there was a chance to break DRS, I pushed quite hard in the first couple of laps. Once I had broken DRS, I tried to settle into the rhythm and the pace seemed to be really strong.”

Strategy in Feature Race 2 was slightly more complicated for the drivers, especially Dunne, who chose to pit early anticipating a Virtual Safety Car.

But the Irishman felt his place out on track, having been P2 behind Stenshorne, made things more complicated for him and the team, as it was an earlier stop than he had wanted.

“In terms of tyre feeling and raw pace in the second Feature Race, I would have liked to have stayed out,” he revealed. “But the fact that Martinius and I were P1 and P2, it makes the strategy a bit more difficult for both of us, because we can't pit at the same time.

“So when I saw that Martinius wasn't pitting on that lap, to me it seemed like a good opportunity to try and capitalise and come to the pits and save myself a bit of time.

“If I was in his position in the lead, then I probably would have stayed out for a little bit longer.”

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Dunne leaves Baku in a much stronger position in the title fight than when he came to the weekend. He was 38 points adrift of the leader but is now just 18 behind heading into the final two rounds.

“We're definitely in the fight,” he added. “But I'm not necessarily going to shift my focus onto the championship. I think three or four rounds ago, I completely switched off from the idea of winning the championship.

“I just focused round by round to try and pick up a good result, and on trying to get the first win of the year, which I'm very happy we managed to get it in Baku.

“After the first Feature Race, when I was talking with my dad, I couldn't believe that I was within eight points of the lead. I couldn't believe that we had brought the gap down from 60 points in the space of two weekends.

“So for me, I still want to keep the focus on having as many strong weekends as possible. I'd also really like to try and keep up the qualifying form. That’s something that for myself and the team has been really impressive all year.

“If we can try and keep up that, I'd be really happy, and then we will see where we end up.”