McLaren junior Dunne takes fine Feature Race win in Bahrain, Lindbald P10

McLaren junior driver Alexander Dunne showed his supreme talent by taking a fine win at the Bahrain Grand Prix Feature race.

The Irishman was over eight seconds clear of Luke Browning in P2 after he made the most of the alternate strategy at the Bahrain International Circuit, while Leonardo Fornaroli held on for P3 after a last-lap battle with sprint race winner Josep 'Pepe' Marti.

Dunne devestating from the start

The feature race in Bahrain was the 200th race in the history of Formula 2, a huge milestone for the junior formula series.

After qualifying on pole, Fornaroli made the perfect start from P1, with the 2024 Formula 3 champion racing away from the rest of the grid to get into the hairpin at turn 1 in front, ahead of Dunne, who moved up from P4 to P2, while Rafael Villagomez made a super start, going from eighth to third.

Victor Martins, who started in P2, had a very poor start, moving backwards to P6 as he struggled in the opening laps around the Bahrain International Circuit. However, he then got back into his groove, making a fine move on Roman Stanek to get back into the top five after lap six.

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On lap seven, Dunne took advantage of Fornaroli's option tyres fading quickly, closing the gap between the two of them very quickly before he made a move down the inside of turn 1, making it stick and taking the lead of the 32-lap race.

The Irish driver then pushed his gap out at the front of the grid, while sprint race winner Marti moved his way up to the top three by making a move past Martins after the Spaniard started in P11.

Alternate strategy doesn't shake Dunne

Martins was the first of the leading pack to come into the pits, changing his soft tyres after 13 laps as he struggled to get to grips with them after dropping down from second on the grid, coming out in P17.

Three laps later, Fornaroli and Marti came in from P2 and P3, respectively, to try and undercut Dunne out in front, but both came out behind Martins, proving the power of the undercut in the desert of Bahrain.

Dunne then came in on lap 17, and thanks to a good stop from Rodin Motorsport, he came out just ahead of Martins, but only by half a second, with the Frenchamn all over the Irishman, making up for his poor start.

Browning, after starting in P3, fell backwards through the grid after starting on the hard tyres on the alternate strategy. However, a move onto the soft tyres for the rest of the Feature Race meant he had the superior pace compared to the top four, making an easy move on Martin to get himself into fourth after 18 laps.

Browning then continued to highlight his pace as the fastest man on track, closing the gap between himself and Fornaroli in just three laps, making the move with ease to get himself back into the top three after starting second.

Last-lap battle for P3 as Dunne drove clear

Out in front, Dunne made the most of the clean air and his brand-new hard tyres to push on and create a gap between himself, Martin in P2, and the charging Browning, making a gap of just over six seconds with seven laps to go when Browning made the move past Martins for second place.

Martins then came under huge pressure from Fornaroli bheind him, with the earlier pit stop now hindering his progress, and the young Italian made the move on the Frenchman to get himself back into the podium places, with Marti also making a move on the fading Martins.

However, at the front, an imperious Dunne could not be matched by Browning on the soft tyres, with the Rodin driver stretching his lead to over eight seconds before crossing the win to take P1 with a statement victory.

A brilliant last-lap battle between Fornaroli and Marti took place, with the Spaniard trying with all his might to make a move up onto the podium after his P11 start. However, it was the Italian that held on and rounded out the podium.

For British super-talent Arvid Lindblad, he could only take P10, while championship leader Richard Verschoor took P6 just behind Martin in P5.