Felix Rosenqvist romped to his first pole of 2014 as the FIA Formula 3 European Championship set camp at the Norisring this weekend, although his pace on the streets of Nuremberg was ultimately left largely unrewarded.
Rosenqvist topped a ferociously close qualifying session on Friday afternoon, grabbing pole for the first race of the weekend by just 0.003 seconds as a full 25 drivers were covered by less than a second around the shortest lap of the season. In doing so, the Swede continued his string of convincing street-circuit performances, which most recently included victory in this year’s Grand Prix de Pau in France.
Rosenqvist duly went on to take the lead in Saturday’s Race 1, but eventually fell back to sixth (a result he later repeated in Race 2) after losing ground in a series of safety car restarts.
In the final race of the weekend, the Mücke Motorsport man set off from third on the grid, but was delayed in an opening lap pile-up triggered by events behind him. Able to re-join down in last place, Rosenqvist fought his way back up to 11th, posting the second-fastest lap of the race in the process.
“In terms of results, this was another tough weekend for us, but the pace was there – as we proved in qualifying,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “Things just refuse to go our way this season, and I also think I could have done a better job in the races this weekend. I am here to win, full stop, but you actually learn more in challenging times – and I take a couple of things away from here that I’m sure will make me a more complete driver. I’ll give it my all again come Moscow, which will be a brand new circuit for me, and hopefully we’ll get some better rewards for our pace over there.”
The FIA Formula 3 European Championship is set to break brand new ground for its next meeting on July 11-13, with the series paying its first-ever visit to Russia. Host venue for round seven of the 2014 campaign – the inaugural international F3 event on Russian soil – will be the 3.9 km Moscow Raceway