Dunne's F2 title hopes suffer big blow at Monza

Alex Dunne failed to score a point in a Formula 2 weekend for the first time this season

Alex Dunne's Formula 2 title hopes suffered a big blow after he failed to score a point across two races at Monza.

The 19-year-old Irishman crashed out of Sunday's feature race after being hit by Red Bull Junior driver Arvid Lindblad.

Dunne had also failed to score in Saturday's sprint race, which was won by championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

The McLaren development driver remains fifth in the standings but is now 50 points Italy's Fornaroli with three rounds remaining.

It was a disappointing end to the Italian Grand Prix for Dunne, who drove for McLaren's Formula 1 team in first practice.

Dunne's weekend started with a second Formula 1 outing of the season after an impressive debut in Austria, when he finished fourth and was just 0.069 seconds off championship leader Oscar Piastri.

While his appearance in Monza was not quite as spectacular, it was still a solid, mistake-free run as he finished the session in 16th place.

After qualifying in fifth place as he returned to Formula 2 duties, Dunne was handed a 10-second penalty for forcing Indian driver Kush Maini off the track in Saturday's sprint race before contact from Sami Megatounif, for which the French driver was penalised, dropped the Irishman out of the points.

Sunday's feature race was just as eventful, as Rodin Motorsport driver Dunne was rear-ended by England's Lindblad on the seventh lap on the approach to the Ascari chicane and he ended up in the barriers.

Lindblad, who became the youngest winner in F2 earlier in the season, then had an incident with Roman Stanek later in the race and was penalised for both incidents.

English driver Luke Browning won his first race of the season in the feature race, and jumps up to second in the championship. The Williams junior driver is now 21 points behind Fornaroli.

Formula 2 standings

1. Leonardo Fornaroli (ITA) 174 points

2. Luke Browning (GBR) 153

3. Richard Verschoor (NED) 144

4. Jak Crawford (USA)137

5. Alex Dunne (IRL) 124