Pinnacle Motorsport enjoyed a positive start to their 2021 season after Alex Dunne delivered a stellar performance at the Spanish F4 Championship’s curtain raiser at Spa-Francorchamps. With both team and driver making their debut in the series, together they would take pole position and a podium finish from the race weekend.
Dunne snatched headlines by claiming pole position on his very first outing in single-seaters. His best lap in Q1 was a mere 0.004 seconds faster than his closest rival, but was enough to secure him a front row start in Race 1. The young Irishman again on his way for a repeat, unfortunately his next lap was nullified after exceeding track limits which left him down in P12. His best efforts in Q2 could then only take him to P7 due to traffic.
With a swarm of drivers hot on his heels, Pinnacle Motorsport’s sole entry in the series slipped back to P4 at the start of Race 1. But he quickly regained the lead after his rivals faltered during the chaotic opening lap, which brought out the safety car. There was only a little over 10 minutes left when the race restarted leaving all drivers scrambling for position. Dunne dropped to P5 before fighting his way back to 3rd to earn Pinnacle Motorsport’s first podium in Europe after many years competing in Asia.
Dunne was now clearly a force to be reckoned with and was on the hunt for another podium in Race 2 that afternoon. His swift charge from P7 on the grid, however was cut short after making contact with another driver in an effort to take P5. The error cost him a front wing and chances to score points after a trip to the pit lane lost him a lap to the leaders.
Undeterred by the slight setback, the 15-year-old was on full attack mode during Race 3 on Saturday morning. He threaded his way through the strong 28-car field to impressively climb from P12 at the start up to P5.
A pair of strong finishes in Belgium now puts Alex Dunne 5th overall in the points race as the Spanish F4 Championship heads to the Circuito de Navarra on the 29th to 30th of May.
Alex Dunne: “I’m delighted to have completed my first ever car racing weekend with a pole position and a debut podium. I’ve learnt so much this weekend and with so much being new to me I am really happy with how everything went.This weekend sets us up very nicely for a championship challenge over the remainder of the season and I can’t wait for the next event to build on this performance. Thanks to KCMG and Pinnacle Motorsport for making this possible.”
John O’Hara, Team Director: “Alex really impressed us with his debut performance this weekend. We had full confidence that he had the pace to fight in front, but taking pole in qualifying was a nice surprise to everyone at Pinnacle Motorsport. He also showed maturity in his driving as he battled for position on track. If it weren’t for the lengthy safety car periods and a slight error in Race 2, we could have easily finished on the podium more than once.”
Accompanying Pinnacle Motorsport on their Spanish F4 Championship are partners KCMG and Motorsport Ireland.
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