{"id":4093,"date":"2016-03-13T18:48:45","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T17:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/b106543.web05.cust.bluerange.se\/?p=4093"},"modified":"2016-03-13T18:48:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T17:48:45","slug":"felix-rosenqvist-wins-on-maiden-indy-lights-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/felix-rosenqvist-wins-on-maiden-indy-lights-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Felix Rosenqvist wins on maiden Indy Lights weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Felix<\/a><\/p>\n

Felix Rosenqvist presented himself to the American motorsport audience by converting pole position into victory on his very first weekend of Indy Lights competition in St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Swede \u2013 embarking on his new American adventure after winning the 2015 FIA F3 European Championship \u2013 controlled the second and final of this weekend\u2019s two races on the narrow street track, leading for the full duration and setting the fastest lap on his way to victory.<\/p>\n

Competing for Indiana-based Belardi Auto Racing, Rosenqvist is the first Swedish driver in history to win an Indy Lights race.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt\u2019s really cool to win on my first weekend of racing here in the US,\u201d says Felix Rosenqvist<\/strong>. \u201dIt\u2019s a big achievement and I would like to thank the guys for giving me a perfect car today. A great way to start the season, but I\u2019ve always enjoyed street circuits and I\u2019m aware that there will be venues less suited for me this year. The Indy Lights calendar is very diverse, and we need to keep on working hard if we are to maintain the kind of level we\u2019ve had here in St. Petersburg.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rosenqvist, a two-time Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix winner, got off to a flying start between the walls in western Florida, topping both of Friday\u2019s two practice sessions before carrying his form into qualifying and grabbing second and first place respectively on the grids for the weekend\u2019s two races.<\/p>\n

In Saturday\u2019s season-opener, however, he was forced to make do with seventh at the chequered flag, after his engine was inadvertently switched into rain mode before the start \u2013 reducing power by approximately 30 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was our mistake and it cost us some valuable points,\u201d Rosenqvist admits<\/strong>. \u201cThere is an engine map designed to improve driveability and reduce wheel spin in the wet, but in the dry you obviously want as much power as possible. It meant I was a sitting duck on the straights, and that I couldn\u2019t capitalise on starting on the front row. Given the circumstances, I was actually quite pleased to bring home some points in that race, and particularly happy to make up for it in the second one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s Race 2, Rosenqvist then blazed away to score a flag-to-flag victory, bagging the maximum 32 points on offer.<\/p>\n

Next up on the Indy Lights schedule is a visit to the Phoenix International Raceway, the first of three ovals on the 2016 calendar, on April 1-2.<\/p>\n

“We spent one day testing at Phoenix before the season, and that was hugely important,\u201d Rosenqvist concludes<\/strong>. \u201cIt was my first time on an oval, and it\u2019s such a different way of driving to what I\u2019m used to. You need a lot of experience to understand that kind of racing, and since I\u2019m lacking that, I will have to approach those events a little bit more cautiously. That\u2019s not to say we can\u2019t be running at the front, but it\u2019s more of an uncertainty for me than the regular tracks.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Felix Rosenqvist leaves the St. Petersburg curtain-raiser sitting third in the overall Indy Lights standings, as top rookie, just two points adrift of early championship leader F\u00e9lix Serrall\u00e9s \u2013 incidentally one of Rosenqvist\u2019s former F3 rivals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indy Lights | St. Petersburg (Florida, USA)<\/p>\n

Race 2<\/p>\n

1: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE)<\/strong>
\n2: Kyle Kaiser (USA)
\n3: Zach Veach (USA)
\n4: F\u00e9lix Serrall\u00e9s (PRI)
\n5: Andr\u00e9 Negr\u00e3o (BRA)<\/p>\n

Race 1<\/p>\n

1: F\u00e9lix Serrall\u00e9s (PRI)
\n2: Scott Hargrove (CAN)
\n3: Kyle Kaiser (USA)
\n4: Santiago Urrutia (URU)
\n5: RC Enerson (USA)
\n\u2014
\n7: Felix Rosenqvist (SWE)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Felix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Felix Rosenqvist presented himself to the American motorsport audience by converting pole position into victory on his very first weekend of Indy Lights competition in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 24-year-old Swede \u2013 embarking on his new American adventure after winning the 2015 FIA F3 European Championship \u2013 controlled the second and final of this weekend\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news3","category-press-releases","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"aioseo_notices":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4094,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions\/4094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}