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Austrian F3 driver Lukas Dunner delivers great performance in Euroformula Open at Circuit Paul Ricard, reaps the rewards of good preparation with his team. After qualifying on P1 and P2, he scores P1 and P3 in the respective races.

Lukas Dunner shows composed and mature driving. After a collective testing day on Thursday and free practices on Friday, the young Austrian secures pole position for himself and the Japanese Team CryptoTower during the qualifying on Saturday.

In race one, Dunner makes use of both his talent and preparation, does not give up his first position from start to finish and manages to win by more than 4 seconds over his teammate Yifei Ye, who comes in second. Both racers give each other a run for their money, they fight at eyelevel and push each other to a higher level.

Ye is the one taking race two, finishing just ahead of Maloney. Dunner is still among the very fastest on track during race 2, however with 3 minor mistakes, he has to give up the second position he started from and take P3 at the finish line.

The result shows Dunner and his team, that the efforts of the past months have been good investments, leaving only finetuning to be done. The Austrian will make use of the momentum and the energy from the win for the next race weekend: at the legendary Belgian Spa-Francorchamps Dunner will compete with the FIA F3 field, from 28th to 30th of August.

"My first single seater win, it feels just great. Big thanks to my team, CryptoTower and my teammate. It's really cool to have someone with such a similar pace, that pushes me a lot. Now we'll analyse, where I can improve and next weekend I hope for the famous Ardennes-weather, those are just my conditions." - Lukas Dunner

PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10th 2020, Vienna

Austrian F3 driver Lukas Dunner looks back at a difficult second race weekend in Silverstone with P23 and DNF. After two consecutive race weekends in Great Britain, FIA F3 together with FIA F1 and FIA F2 travels to Barcelona, Spain.

The young Austrian had stayed in Silverstone after the first race weekend there to focus on his intense work out and being race ready. The current concentration of race weekends as well as the unstable conditions due to Covid19 demand organisational as well as logistic strength from the team surrounding Dunner.

In the free practice session, Dunner sets the 27th fastest laptime. Little later, in Qualifying, he places the car on P28 for the starting grid, right behind his MP Motorsport teammate Richard Verschoor. A red flag during his last attempt at a fast lap ended his chance of starting further in front.

In race 1, the Austrian stays composed and with good pace he manages to gain a few positions, he crosses the line on P23.

In race 2, Dunner's fight for positions is short-lived. After only a few laps, two competitors fighting each other lose control and both crash into Dunner's car, one damaging his front wing and the other more substantially damaging the side of his car. The Austrian subsequently is out of the race.

After a short pit stop at his home in Vienna, Lukas Dunner will later this week be on his way to Barcelona where he and the rest of the Formula 3 drivers have their next race.

"That was a tough one. I wanted to deliver a better result, the team deserved it after all of their hard work. At least Bent was able to win race 2, I'm happy for the team, and of course for him." - Lukas Dunner

PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3rd 2020, Vienna

Dunner experiences challenging Silverstone weekend in FIA Formula 3. After being in a collision with no fault of his own, he manages to bounce back and win positions in race 2. MP Motorsport's pit crew is put to the test with both Dunner's and a teammate's car, manages to keep both racing.

An unusually wet Hungaroring race weekend is followed by an equally unusually dry Silverstone race weekend. The young Austrian Dunner shows a solid performance, which is not reflected in the results. A collision of two contestants right in front of him puts him out of race 1 early. He subsequently starts his race 2 from the back of the grid, manages to gain positions and finish in P23.

On Friday, Dunner qualifies on P22, about .3 sec behind his more experienced teammates Richard Verschoor and Bent Viscaal. The fact that their respective times were very much in reach was shown by his first two sectors where his pace matched theirs. However, Dunner's tires were gone in sector 3.

Race 1 on Saturday sees Dunner with a 3 position grid penalty from Hungaroring. During the first half the Austrian manages his tires in order to attack during the end of the race. Unfortunately for him, right after the safety car comes in, two contestants in front of him collide in the Vale corner. With another one blocking Dunner's view he can't evade the crash, but suffers only a few bruises.

The fact that Dunner can race on Sunday is due to a feat of his team MP Motorsport. They manage to install all the new parts to a chassis loaned by another team by 6.30 in the morning and secure Dunner's place in the race.
The race itself the Austrian stays composed and manages to gain several positions. He is able to follow former race winner Fernandez' (ART) pace, however can't quite get past him. Dunner finishes on P23.

Dunner's team MP Motorsport has no time to rest as they are set to mount all the car's parts to yet another (new from Dallara factory) chassis, which will then have Dunner race in it come next weekend. Together with Formula 1, Formula 3 will be back in Silverstone (August 7th to August 9th).

"All in all an exciting weekend, I'm quite happy with my pace in qualifying and race 2." - Lukas Dunner

Young Austrian driver for MP Motorsport Lukas Dunner experiences a rather eventful second FIA Formula 3 race weekend, filled with valuable lessons, at the Red Bull Ring. Both free practice and qualifying had the field getting used to the hard tire compound (last week they only raced on medium). During qualifying, Dunner was twice interrupted by red flags during a quick lap with promising sector times.

Race 1 on Saturday saw some heavy rain, as forecasted, leading to many drivers spinning their cars. Dunner stayed composed despite being out on slicks and dry setup, setting laptimes on par with the best in the field. With conditions worsening, more and more drivers kept spinning out, one of which Dunner could not evade due to the poor visibility conditions. He hit the opponent going in excess of 100 mph, luckily neither of them got seriously hurt. The race was subsequently cancelled, as had been demanded by various drivers even before the accident.

Race 2 on Sunday had the Austrian start from P16 (result from race 1). Going into corner 3, a teammate of his chose an optimistic braking point, dove into the inside and pushed Dunner wide, which had him lose 5 positions. Not giving up, he drove the car to the limits, causing the tires to degrade and even develop flatspots. After several Virtual Safety Car phases, the two leaders collided which had the field finish the race behind the Safety Car.

"All in all I was able to make progress during the weekend. Saturday was probably the most intense racing day of my career so far. Rain kept getting heavier, hydroplaning, no visibility whatsoever. In the end I couldn't evade one of of the others spinning and I hit him doing well over 100mph. That was not necessary and in my eyes it's wrong to wait with cancelling until something happens. I don't even want to imagine what happens if I hit the other one into the side.
I started well into Sunday though and felt really good from the start. Then one of my teammates divebombed me which made me lose 5 positions.. I understand that he feels the pressure of having to deliver, but I really wonder if it's necessary for him to attack his teammate, of all people, like that.
Next up I'll have my physio check my back - I'm really lucky to have an outstanding team around me. The next steps are clear, we'll soldier on." - Lukas Dunner