Young Offaly motor sport star makes strong start in qualifying in FIA Formula 3
The young Offaly driver has a seat with the MP Motorsport team
Young Offaly motoring star Alex Dunne has made a strong start in qualifying in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in Bahrain on Thursday.
The young Offaly driver is a rookie this year and he has a seat with the MP Motorsport team.
In qualifying at the Sakhir Circuit, he clocked a best time of 1.47.133 to leave him in 14th place of the 30 cars on the grid. He was just over seven tenths of a second off the poll position time set by Dino Beganovic who is driving for Prema.
Alex will race twice in the coming days in the sprint race and the feature race with both races live on Sky Sports F1.
The 19 lap F3 sprint race gets underway at 10am Irish time on Friday with the feature race live on Saturday morning at 8.55am.
Alex won the F4 Brisitsh Championship in 2022 and finished second in the GB3 Championship last year.
The FIA Formula 3 Championship began in 2019 and among the previous winners is Oscar Piastri who now drives in Formula 1 for McLaren.
Speaking to www.fiaformula3.com, Alex outlined how he prepared for he Bahrain track.
“I think the main thing is to do a lot of prep on the sim. One of the biggest things about Bahrain is about how abrasive the track is, so the degradation of the tyre is quite aggressive.
“It's probably the highest of the year where we really need to look after the tyres, so I think that's something we really look into in the sim when we are coming here. I would say that's probably been the biggest thing for myself to get used to.”