Offaly Teenager Alex Dunne Back In Grand Prix Action This Weekend

Thursday, 15 July 2021 at 15:21

He's racing in the Spanish F4 Championship this year.

Offaly teenager Alex Dunne is back on track this weekend in the Spanish F4 Championship.

Qualifying takes place in Portimao tomorrow for the third race weekend in the series.

It'll be the second time he competes at a current Formula One Grand Prix track.

Speaking ahead of the weekend, the fifteen year old said:

“The Championship had a two day test at Portimao in preparation for this weekend and I was really happy with how it went. The track was new to both me and my Pinnacle Racing team so we spent our time making loads of changes to the car. Portimao is very different to Navarra, which was very flat and stop-start compared to the Portuguese track, which is fast and flowing. There are massive elevation changes which make it almost like a roller-coaster and very interesting to drive.

We started off well on day one, but continued to try different things to get a better understanding of the car. By the end of day two we knew which way we wanted to go and the set up we had found allowed me to get back up to the top of the time sheets in the final couple of sessions.”

The fifteen year old from Co. Offaly made a fantastic start to his car racing career at Spa in Belgium, taking pole position and third place in race one. Mechanical problems in qualifying at Navarra restricted him to a best result of seventh place from the three races but with those issues now sorted Alex heads to Portugal full of confidence following a strong run in pre event testing.

Having learnt so much since his success at the opening event of the season and having performed so strongly in testing, Alex is confident of a return to the top of the results this weekend. The Irish driver currently sits ninth in the standings but is aiming for a strong weekend that will really kick start his championship challenge.

Qualifying and race one of the Portuguese round take place on Friday 16th, with two more races on the morning of Saturday 17th.