‘Best day of my life’ – Dunne delivers on F1 debut

Teenager Alex Dunne says making his Formula 1 debut at the Austrian Grand Prix is “definitely the best day of my life”.

The 19-year-old impressed as he posted the fourth-fastest time in opening practice for the Austrian Grand Prix as he stood in for McLaren’s Lando Norris.

The Irish driver was handed the opportunity in one of McLaren’s four mandatory sessions across the season where a rookie driver will take part in first practice.

Dunne is a McLaren development driver and leads the Formula 2 standings after six rounds with two victories in Bahrain and Imola.

“I want to say a massive thank you, you made a little boy’s dream come true,” Dunne said on his team radio after the session.

“This is definitely the best day of my life.

In taking part in first practice, Dunne became the first Irish driver to participate in a Formula 1 weekend in 22 years.

He started the session off slowly, carrying an aero rake on his car as championship leaders McLaren tested updates on the MCL39.

After a stint on hard tyres, the former British F4 champion posted the fourth-fastest time after switching to the soft tyres late in the hour-long session.

His quickest time was just 0.069 seconds shy of championship leader Oscar Piastri, who was third behind George Russell and Max Verstappen.

“I’m super, super happy. It’s safe to say it went pretty well,” Dunne told McLaren’s social media.

“We knew going into the session that the goal wasn’t necessarily for performance, it was more to help out with the car, help Lando and kind of just help the team improve as much as they can for FP2 and FP3, and onwards into the weekend.

Andrew Benson, BBC Sport’s Formula 1 correspondent: “There was a point where McLaren were thinking of dropping Alex Dunne but [former racing driver] Warren Hughes said to them if you look into the data, you can see that he is really talented and that’s really coming out this year.

“He’s been super impressive in F2 and that lap time. It is only first practice but it’s a very rare a driver gets into a grand prix practice session and laps that close to the regular race driver.

“Alex Dunne might be giving McLaren a few headaches because they already have Piastri and Norris under contract in F1 for at least a couple of years.

Speaking on Sky Sports, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Dunne was “diligent and impressive” in his approach to the session, which included testing the new upgrades on the McLaren.

“He also had the chance to show some speed, and it’s no surprise as he’s a fast driver,” Stella added.

“I think we need to be a bit careful looking at the lap times because his lap time came later on in the stint when the fuel was down.

“But it was encouraging and impressive, in terms of Alex himself and it was a good session for McLaren.”

Ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandock says Dunne’s performance in practice was “tremendously impressive”.

“If I was McLaren I’d be trying to do a deal with Cadillac or someone like that,” he said on Sky Sports.

“You want to find him a seat somewhere to build up some racing experience.

Heading into the Austrian Grand Prix, Dunne leads the Formula 2 standings by three points ahead of Dutch driver Richard Verschoor.

The Offaly driver has won in Bahrain and Imola, and claimed pole position in Monaco.

After his impressive F1 debut, Dunne returned to his Rodin Motorsport Formula 2 car for qualifying for the seventh round of the season.

He posted the seventh fastest time and will start from fourth in the reverse grid sprint race on Saturday (13:15 BST), and will line-up where he qualified for the feature race on Sunday (09:00 BST).

“It’s important not to focus too much on F1, it’s important to focus on F2 and trying to do as well as I can,” Dunne told BBC Sport before his F1 debut.

“If I get too wrapped up in it I can quickly forget about what I need to do this year.