Feature
Triple-Header Highlight: Rodin Motorsport and Hitech TGR show pit crew prowess at Imola
While the drivers are always fighting tooth and nail to get to the top step in FIA Formula 2, the teams play their roles in the outcome, with strategy always essential to any success.
Whether it be an on-the-fly decision from the pit wall, or the execution of strategy, to the seamless work necessary for an ideal pitstop, it all adds up in the fight for victory.
At Imola and Round 4 of the 2025 season, that was on full display as the top two finishers benefitted from their respective team’s hard work in the pitlane to climb onto the rostrum on Sunday.
Starting from P5 and P7 respectively, Alexander Dunne and Luke Browning were facing an uphill battle around a circuit that is not the easiest to overtake around.
Their starts however were positive, gaining one position immediately after Victor Martins was left stranded on the grid as he stalled in the ART Grand Prix #14 car.
Dunne ran fourth, while Browning settled into sixth during the opening stint of the race, prior to the pitstop window.
Entering Lap 7, race leader Dino Beganovic dived into the pitlane, joined by Leonardo Fornaroli, Arvid Lindblad and Dunne, entering in that order.
Some excellent work by the Rodin Motorsport mechanics got the McLaren Development Driver serviced and back into the fast lane, and slightly longer stops for Campos Racing and Invicta Racing left their chargers waiting for Dunne to pass before they could be released safely.
Dunne was on the attack right away, looking for a move on the pole sitter ahead as the quartet rejoined on cold tyres.
With the top four pitting the lap before, Jak Crawford inherited the lead and Browning moved up to second before they responded at the end of the lap.
Crawford’s stop was slightly slower than the Hitech TGR crew did, as the Williams Racing Junior driver filtered out ahead of everyone, but under serious pressure from teammate Beganovic.
On his cold tyres, Browning went wheel-to-wheel with the Swede at Tosa, just about keeping the theoretical lead of the race as Beganovic ran out of room on the exit.
It allowed Dunne to sneak through and onto the gearbox of Browning, who was still fighting to generate tyre temperature on his outlap.
READ MORE: Campos Jr: ‘Good to finally get home victory’ as team lead Standings after Barcelona
The Rodin Motorsport talent sensed his opportunity, and with DRS on Lap 10, surged around the outside at Turn 2 to move himself to the front of the queue, leading those on the conventional strategy.
It turned out to be the race-winning overtake, as Dunne measured out the performance of the Soft compound Pirelli tyres to generate a comfortable 6.5s winning advantage by the end.
His overtaking of the slower traffic ahead in the latter half of the race was pivotal in building that gap, with incisive overtakes at Tosa highlights in his race.
Their charges on Sunday and measured drives to the podium helped them to a healthy haul of points that lifted them from fourth and fifth places to first and second in the Drivers’ Championship.
The duo moved back into the top three in the Standings after a tougher Jeddah round, in which rivals outscored them.
The hard work in the pitlane from Rodin and Hitech made their drivers’ races possible, and once again reinforced the notion that Formula 2 is a team game.