After a fifth-placed finish in the sprint race on Saturday, Dunne made a strong start in Sunday’s 32-lap race as he passed Ollie Goethe into the first corner of the race.
He then made a superb move around the outside of Roman Stanek at the first corner on the fifth lap to move up to third, but picked up a five-second penalty for an unsafe release when he made his mandatory pit stop.
Dunne had fallen behind Red Bull Junior Lindblad at the safety car, but made a bold move up the inside of the English driver with five laps to go and looked to pull a five-second buffer to the cars behind.
He managed to pull the gap required to Lindblad with a lap to spare, but third place wasn’t enough to keep his slim title hopes alive as Fornaroli took the crown.
Fornaroli’s nearest challenger heading into Qatar, Jak Crawford, finished in 11th, while fellow contenders Richard Verschoor and GB’s Luke Browning were sixth and tenth.
After victories in Bahrain and Imola, Dunne led the championship in the early stages of the season but technical infringements in Austria, which saw him disqualified from second place, and Belgium, where he dropped from first to ninth, damaged his title hopes.
The final round of the Formula 2 season takes place in Abu Dhabi on 6-7 December.
