Alex Dunne left ‘hurt’ after FIA penalty strips away Belgian Grand Prix F2 win
Alex Dunne was stripped of victory in the F2 Feature race in Belgium.
McLaren junior Alex Dunne says it “definitely hurts” after a penalty saw him lose victory in the F2 feature race at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Dunne, competing for the Rodin Motorsport team, collected his third victory of the F2 2025 season in Sunday’s rain-affected feature race at Spa.
McLaren junior Alex Dunne loses Belgian Grand Prix F2 win as FIA take action
However, the Irish driver’s joy turned to disappointment after he was handed a 10-second penalty for a minor procedural breach at the start of the race.
With a rolling start held in the wet after a formation lap behind the Safety Car, Dunne and his team were left under the impression that the youngster did not need to follow the defined starting procedure as normal.
Dunne was handed a 10-second time penalty, dropping him from first to ninth in the final classification at Spa.
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It came just weeks after Dunne was disqualified from the feature race in Austria for excessive plank wear.
Dunne’s latest penalty means he now sits fourth in the F2 standings, trailing leader Leonardo Fornaroli by 11 points.
In a post to social media, Dunne admitted that it “hurts” to have lost the feature race victory as a result of an offence that had “absolutely zero effect” on the way the race unfolded.
And he has vowed to “put it right” at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, which marks the 10th of 14 rounds in the F2 2025 season.
Dunne wrote: “Definitely hurts to have the win taken away for something that has absolutely zero affect on the race.
“We dominated the whole weekend and were untouchable in all conditions.
“Massive thank you to Rodin Motorsport for doing an amazing job once again.
“We’ll put it right next week at Budapest.”
Dunne’s penalty initially handed victory in the feature race to Arvid Lindblad, the Red Bull junior.
However, Lindblad also found himself in trouble with the FIA, which disqualified the Campos racer for a tyre-pressure infringement.
All four of Lindblad’s tyres were found to be below the minimum tyre pressures of 16.0 PSI at the front and 14.0 PSI at the rear for wet conditions.
Lindblad’s disqualification saw Roman Stanek, the Czech driver, eventually crowned the winner of the feature race at Spa.
Like Dunne, Lindblad also took to social media to air his frustration over his punishment.
He wrote: “Spa wasn’t what we worked for. I gave everything. I maximised what was in my control but other factors denied us what we deserved.
“I’ll keep on fighting and push with the team. We will be back in Budapest.”
Dunne and Lindblad have both made their F1 practice debuts over recent weeks, with the McLaren driver impressing by claiming fourth in FP1 at the Austrian Grand Prix.
That came seven days before Lindblad took to the wheel of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull RB21 on Friday at Silverstone, where he was classified 14th in FP1.
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