Felix Rosenqvist was left with fifth as his best result as the FIA Formula 3 European Championship paid its inaugural visit to Russia this weekend.
Rosenqvist suffered from a lack of confidence behind the wheel of his Mücke Motorsport Dallara throughout the event, coming home eighth, seventh and fifth respectively in the three races staged at the 3.9 km Moscow Raceway.
The 22-year-old was held back in particular by two difficult qualifying showings that left him with midfield grid slots, although the Swede then managed to make up ground in each of the races – eventually hauling himself into the top five thanks to an overtaking move on the very last lap of Sunday’s Race 3.
“This has been a really tough weekend for me, but we at least capped it off with a decent performance in the final race,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “Fifth isn’t exactly a result I’m thrilled about, but it did mark a slight improvement for us and the lap times were competitive. I haven’t come to terms with the set-up of the car this weekend and the feeling behind the wheel has been extremely inconsistent. I’m sure the potential is there inherently, but it’s very hard to extract it and to be consistently quick. Having said that, I know how tiny the margins are between success and failure in this sport, and how quickly a situation can turn around. We’ll be aiming to prove that at the next race three weeks from now.”
The next round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship takes place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria – scene of Felix Rosenqvist’s historic triple win of last year – on August 1-3.