Felix will start the opening race of the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship campaign from 14th on the grid, following a difficult qualifying session at Silverstone on Friday afternoon.
With the engine problems that hamstrung his free practice programme having been successfully rectified by Mücke Motorsport, Felix went into qualifying hoping to secure a competitive slot on the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1. The session, however, would not transpire to his liking, as he joined team-mates Lucas Auer and Roy Nissany in a struggle for grip at the British venue and eventually had to make do with 14th. Auer, meanwhile, wound up 10th to lead the thwarted Mücke Motorsport challenge.
Qualifying 2, which will set up the grid for Races 2 and 3 of the weekend, is scheduled to begin at 17.40 local time this evening.
FELIX:
“A very disappointing outcome, obviously. I hate to say it, but I think we’re just too slow at the moment. I could have gone a couple of tenths quicker with a perfect lap, but the time Lucas did is probably close to what we’ve got.
“The car is sliding a lot, and we seem to be down on top speed compared to our main rivals, but it’s still difficult to understand why we’re almost one second off. We’ve been on the pace all through testing and felt confident going into this weekend, so we need to analyse this and make sure we get on top of it. We’ll try to make a slightly better job in the second qualifying session later today, and then we’ll take it from there.”
RESULTS (top ten):
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| 1 | Tom Blomqvist | 1:51.327 | |
| 2 | Esteban Ocon | +0.002 | |
| 3 | Antonio Fuoco | +0.051 | |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | +0.075 | |
| 5 | Felix Serralles | +0.468 | |
| 6 | Jordan King | +0.481 | |
| 7 | Edward Jones | +0.521 | |
| 8 | Nicholas Latifi | +0.592 | |
| 9 | Dennis van de Laar | +0.624 | |
| 10 | Lucas Auer | +0.660 | |
| 14 | Felix Rosenqvist | +0.936 |