LEXINGTON, Ohio — In a successful qualifying session ahead of Sunday’s (July 3) Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Felix Rosenqvist gave his No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet crew a big reason to smile with a fourth place result.
As teammate Pato O’Ward celebrated scoring the fifth pole position of his IndyCar Series career, Rosenqvist elated his crew with a lap of 1 minute, 7.2163 seconds to average 120.935 mph around the 13-turn, 2.258 mile road course, placing the car behind O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin and Colton Herta.
That qualifying performance means that the 31-year-old has qualified in the top eight on seven occasions this year, competing in the Firestone Fast Six in four of those races. Mid-Ohio is the ninth race in the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series championship.
While Rosenqvist is happy about being that high on the grid, there’s always questions about what could have been, especially after qualifying fastest in his round one group and second fastest in the second round of qualifying by .0097 seconds to advance to the Firestone Fast Six.
“I don’t know, I mean, kind of mixed feelings about finishing fourth,” Rosenqvist said. “I think whenever you’re in the Fast Six, (you) want to go for the pole, but yeah. We were really fast on the new tires and we were fastest in the first segment and then second in the second, just like a thousandth (of a second) behind Scott (McLaughlin). And then the Fast Six, I don’t know. It just, it seems to be our thing. We’re always in the Fast Six, but we’re never better than fourth.
“Good day starting fourth, I think it’s continuing a really good momentum for us. So we’re really excited.”
Rosenqvist was puzzled over what dropped him from a top two position in the first two rounds to fourth in the final round of qualifying, thinking that the process for getting the Firestone red sidewall alternate compound tires up to temperature might need some adjusting. The red sidewall tires are softer and provide more grip than the black sidewall primary compound but aren’t designed to last as long, making them the preferred tire late in qualifying.
“I think we have to change the approach somehow, the way (we) bring in the tires or which set of tires (we) use,” Rosenqvist said. “You know to be honest, we just kind of gambled, because it seems like we’re always doing the wrong decision and today we [were] just like, ‘Yeah, let’s try this.’ And I don’t know, that’s…
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