The Arrow McLaren driver secured his second podium of the season after Detroit with a great driving performance and an audacious strategy that saw him do 26 laps on the red tyres in his final stint because of Canapino causing a yellow.
Rosenqvist was definitely pleased with his impressive run, especially after he was left disappointed with his qualifying in P11, as he said in the post-race press conference:
“It’s been a really good weekend for us. I was really bummed yesterday after qualifying.”
An issue with his car prevented him from extracting the full potential from the no.6 in the Fast 12 and potentially Fast 6:
“We had something break in the steering rack, and we had to pit before we could do our lap in Q2. So there was definitely more in it than our starting position showed.”
Photo credit: Arrow McLaren
Ultimately, Sunday was a great recovery drive for Rosenqvist. He made up places early on and then showed terrific pace to overcut a number of cars at the first round of stops, including Rahal and McLaughlin, and he jumped teammate O’Ward in the pits.
“Yeah, what a race. That was really good fun. It kind of went our way as well. We kind of gambled on staying out on reds, but it worked out with the yellow in the end.
“We had to obviously save the tyres a bit, so I think it wasn’t the winning strategy, but it was for sure enough for a podium. Really happy with the comeback we did.”
Asked if an overtake for the win on eventual championship winner Alex Palou could have happened after the restart, the Swedish driver felt the blacks were as good as the reds at a restart:
“No, not really. It was a pretty straight shot in a final restart, and I was on the reds. He was on the blacks. Both fairly new tyres.
“I thought I had a shot, but honestly the blacks were kind of as good as the reds in the restart. That’s at least from my point of view. I had some really good restarts on blacks.”
In the end, tyre management was required for his bold strategy and he had to settle for second place.
“I just couldn’t really attack him. Once I realized he was pulling away, I was, like, I probably have to save my tyres now because otherwise I risk actually falling through the field in the last five laps.”
“I was just kind of managing after a couple of laps, and I think I pretty much did the optimal stint time that I could with those tyres. So, yeah, it was kind of frustrating, but it could have been worse, so…,” he concluded.
