Rosenqvist eyes maiden Super Formula win after Fuji podium
Felix Rosenqvist has set his sights on winning his first Super Formula race on the back of a podium finish at the most recent round in Fuji.
Rosenqvist mastered a late-stop strategy to finish second behind Hiroaki Ishiura at the former F1 venue, having started from the fifth row on the grid.
With this result he is now best-placed rookie in the standings in fifth, three places ahead of Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly.
Citing an upward trend that has seen him bounce back from two non-scores to finish fourth and second in Okayama and Fuji respectively, the 25-year-old feels he now has enough understanding of the peculiar details of the series to aim for the top spot on the rostrum.
“Our next target is obviously to try to win a race before the season ends which is very difficult in the championship considering I’m a rookie,” he said.
“But I think we’ve proved in the last few races that we are there more or less. I think it would be stupid not to go for top four, top three in the championship.”
Qualifying the Achilles heel
Qualifying remains the weakest point for Rosenqvist in Super Formula, the Swede having started only once inside the top 10 in the first four races of the year.
While he holds a 2-2 qualifying record against Team LeMans teammate Kazuya Oshima, the Berlin ePrix winner is aware that better starting positions can put him in contention for further podium finishes in the second half of the season.
“Obviously at Okayama we had a very good race car, but much worse in qualifying," said Rosenqvist. "It’s the same thing here [in Fuji] but I think we improved a bit in qualifying.
“We still have quite big steps to take. That’s the target for next race. If we can start in the top five, we have a very good chance of finishing many more times on the podium.”
Additional reporting by Ken Tanaka
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