Felix Rosenqvist claimed a brace of personal bests on the oval schedule of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES this weekend at Gateway, twice finishing inside the top eight.
Rosenqvist took eighth place in the first race of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500s double-header, which marked the Chip Ganassi Racing man’s best-ever oval result in INDYCAR until that point.
It would only be 24 hours until Rosenqvist again had improved on his own new benchmark, however, with the Swede powering home to P7 in Sunday’s concluding Race 2.
“I came here to Gateway with the clear goal of taking my best oval result yet, and that’s exactly what we did,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “It’s been a solid weekend, a good step forward. The #10 crew did an amazing job in the pits all weekend, and that was really helpful here with overtaking quite difficult to pull off out on track. In general, I felt more comfortable in the car here and I think we were a more refined package overall.”
Despite his pair of top eight finishes, and two personal bests on INDYCAR’s oval tour, Rosenqvist was not entirely pleased with how the weekend unfolded in Illinois. Crucially, he was running as high as fourth in the first race when he slid into a dramatic slide that dropped him out of podium contention.
“We had a top five on the cards in Race 1, but unfortunately I lost the car after the final restart and nearly crashed,” Rosenqvist reveals. “Thankfully I could still bring the car home, but we lost some places. In the second race, I got stuck behind Ed Carpenter in a crucial phase when I was trying to lap him. I don’t know what he wanted to achieve.
“Anyway, at the end of the day it was a good weekend. We took some solid points and while I will never be thrilled with P7 or P8, it was a good step for me in a wider context.”
Felix Rosenqvist retains tenth place in the overall NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings, but sits only 42 points shy of the top five.
The next round of the championship is currently scheduled to take place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on October 2-3, highlighting another double-header.
RESULTS
NTT INDYCAR SERIES | Rd. 8&9
Bommarito Automotive Group 500s | Gateway
Race 1
1: Scott Dixon (NZL), Ganassi, 200 laps
2: Takuma Sato (JPN), Rahal, +0.1404s
3: Pato O’Ward (MEX), McLaren SP, +7.0052s
4: Colton Herta (USA), Andretti, +7.7019s
5: Marcus Ericsson (SWE), Ganassi, +8.3504s
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8: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE), Ganassi, +13.8107s
Race 2
1: Josef Newgarden (USA), Penske, 200 laps
2: Pato O’Ward (MEX), McLaren SP, +1.4356s
3: Will Power (AUS), Penske, +3.3580s
4: Rinus VeeKay (NED), ECR, +4.4369s
5: Scott Dixon (NZL), Ganassi, +6.2173s
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7: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE), Ganassi, +9.6894s
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
NTT INDYCAR SERIES | After 9/14 races
1: Scott Dixon (NZL), Ganassi, 416 p.
2: Josef Newgarden (USA), Penske, 320 p.
3: Pato O’Ward (MEX), McLaren SP, 297 p.
4: Takuma Sato (JPN), Rahal, 274 p.
5: Colton Herta (USA), Andretti, 250 p.
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10: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE), Ganassi, 208 p.