Felix Rosenqvist was forced to retire from both of this weekend’s two season-ending DTM races at Hockenheim with technical issues.
Rosenqvist entered the final round of the season in high spirits on the back of a strong showing last time out in Budapest (Hungary), and eager to return to the Hockenheim track on which he celebrated a record eight Formula 3 wins between 2011-2015.
It would not turn out as per pre-event hopes, however, with Rosenqvist instead ending up without adding to his DTM points tally after having to park up in the middle stages of both the Saturday and Sunday races (in the latter with a misfiring engine).
“This just wasn’t my weekend,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “The most frustrating thing is that the pace was genuinely strong, particularly on Sunday, but that I wasn’t really able to demonstrate it. I made a mistake on what should have been my fastest lap in first qualifying and went off in the last corner, which meant a lowly grid slot for Race 1, and I then encountered traffic in second qualifying on Sunday. I’m confident we would have scored a number of points still, but unfortunately we ran into some uncommon technical problems and were forced to retire from both races. Not a great way to end the DTM season, but at least the races here were great fun to drive for as long as they lasted!”
Rosenqvist was called up to race for Mercedes-AMG DTM before the round in Moscow earlier in the year, replacing Formula 1-bound Frenchman Esteban Ocon. The 24-year-old Swede has since gone on to contest a total of four championship meetings, scoring twice.
“Getting to race in the DTM this year has been very interesting,” Rosenqvist concludes. “It’s an insanely competitive championship; there were 20 cars within half a second in qualifying here this weekend, which is just unreal… It’s a very, very high level and I’m happy to have been given this chance to prove myself, even though this particular weekend didn’t go as expected. It’s been a valuable experience.”
Felix Rosenqvist’s next race will be the Formula E Marrakech ePrix on November 12.
RESULTS
DTM | Rd. 9
Hockenheim
Race 2
1: Edoardo Mortara (ITA/Audi), 39 laps
2: Christian Vietoris (GER/Mercedes), +3.040s
3: Paul Di Resta (GBR/Mercedes), +4.294s
4: Marco Wittmann (GER/BMW), +5.030s
5: Timo Glock (GER/BMW), +6.103s
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DNF: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE/Mercedes)
Race 1
1: Miguel Molina (ESP/Audi), 27 laps
2: Marco Wittmann (GER/BMW), +1.661s
3: Edoardo Mortara (ITA/Audi), +2.805s
4: António F. da Costa (POR/BMW), +4.870s
5: Mike Rockenfeller (GER/Audi), +6.064s
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DNF: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE/Mercedes)