Felix Rosenqvist endured a day to forget in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, the penultimate round of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
After sealing his best result of the season last weekend at Portland, Rosenqvist was hoping to carry his recent form into the Laguna Seca meeting, but instead suffered one of his most difficult events of the year.
A miscommunication in qualifying left the Arrow McLaren SP driver with not enough fuel to complete his final flying lap, knocking him out in the opening group stages – albeit by just 0.02 seconds.
The setbacks continued in Sunday’s race, with Rosenqvist spinning on the first lap and then again later on, suffering from excessive tyre degradation and a lack of overall grip beneath the California sun.
As it was, Rosenqvist eventually finished a disappointed 19th.
“Definitely a race to forget,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “I drove one of my worst races, and it went hand in hand with one of the most difficult cars I’ve had. It was like driving on ice on the first lap. We were sort of OK on the first two-three laps of each stint, but then the tyres dropped off dramatically and we had no pace.
“We’ve had a number of really promising races lately, but there’s not much to take from this one. We will turn our eyes onto Long Beach and make sure we do a much better job there.”
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES concludes on the streets of Long Beach next weekend (September 24-26).
Post-race video interview available here.
RESULTS
NTT INDYCAR SERIES | Rd. 15
Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey
Laguna Seca (USA)
1: Colton Herta (USA), Andretti, 95 laps
2: Alex Palou (ESP), Ganassi, +1.974s
3: Romain Grosjean (FRA), Dale Coyne, +3.708s
4: Graham Rahal (USA), RLL, +13.861s
5: Pato O’Ward (MEX), AMSP, +24.697s
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19: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE), AMSP, +1 lap
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
NTT INDYCAR SERIES | After 15/16 races
1: Alex Palou (ESP), Ganassi, 517 p.
2: Pato O’Ward (MEX), AMSP, 482 p.
3: Josef Newgarden (USA), Penske, 469 p.
4: Scott Dixon (NZL), Ganassi, 445 p.
5: Marcus Ericsson (SWE), Ganassi, 430 p.
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21: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE), AMSP, 188 p.