Alex Dunne endured the worst possible start to his Formula 2 aspirations for 2026 when crashing into his Rodin Motorsport team-mate Martinius Stenshorne just two laps into Sunday’s feature race in Melbourne.
Dunne and Stenshorne were battling for the lead after making excellent starts off the grid, with the Norwegian Stenshorne holding a slight advantage when Dunne came up on his outside, approaching turn one for the third time.
The Irish driver then made contact when trying to cut back inside, damaging both cars and forcing both drivers off the track.
Following the race, the stewards heard from both drivers along with a team representative and examined available video evidence. They later handed Dunne a five-place grid penalty for the second round of the championship.
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The stewards determined that Dunne “had been predominantly responsible for the collision. As a result, the stewards allocated a 10-second time penalty to the Irish driver. In accordance with the 2026 FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations, the penalty is converted into a grid drop of five places for the next feature race.”
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It made for a highly disappointing start for Dunne. The 20-year-old Offaly driver has made no secret of his desire to win the F2 title this season, after finishing fifth last year in his debut. Stenshorne is in his first full season at F2, and had qualified second fastest, one place ahead of Dunne.
Nikola Tsolov from Campos Racing claimed his maiden victory in Formula 2, becoming the first Bulgarian driver to win in the second-tier championship. Rafael Câmara also raced well to take second place for Invicta Racing, while Laurens van Hoepen finished in third position for Trident.
Tsolov inherited the lead ahead after Dunne and Stenshorne crashed out, before the safety car was deployed to recover the Rodin cars. Still Tsolov was uncatchable, claiming the 25 points to take the early advantage after round one.
“The race was a bit messy, but I knew that from the start,” said Tsolov. “Obviously the two Rodins were very eager to stay in front, and stay ahead of each other, so I let them do their thing which ended up in an incident.
“I tried to avoid it, I was a little worried that they might take me out too and then once I got to the lead that’s when I felt confident and I just managed my own pace.”
Due to the continuing political situation in the Middle East, it’s currently unclear when and where the next two rounds will take place, with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia the scheduled venues for the next two races on April 10th-12th and April 17th-19th. The fourth round of F2 is set for Monaco on June 4th-7th.
The 14 F2 races take place alongside 14 of the 24 F1 locations in 2026, including the season climax in Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi in December. Dunne was leading the title race going into the seventh of the 14 rounds last year, before finishing with two wins, two pole positions and eight podiums overall.
Dunne did pick up six points in Saturday’s sprint race, moving from eighth on the grid to finish fourth, then promoted to third after Stenshorne was penalised.
Three days before the start in Melbourne, Dunne also agreed a deal to join the Alpine F1 Team academy, ahead of his second F2 season with Rodin, which means Dunne will once again get to test himself on the F1 circuit. Each F1 team are obliged to offer their young drivers four practice sessions throughout the season.
