Felix Rosenqvist in the No.60 Bon Jovi Music Meyer Shank Racing Honda had a great season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday.
The Swede started the race from second on the grid and finished the race in seventh place and speaking following the action he commented saying:
We started on the alternate tire and I’m not sure that was the right strategy. At that point you are not sure if they are going to hold on or not, so you can’t be super aggressive the first stint. Then it seemed like after that a lot of people used their alternate tires. We only had one set and had to stick it out on blacks. We had one little hiccup in the pits, that cost us a little bit. Considering all that we had a pretty solid day, maybe a top five in it. I’m super happy with the whole team effort at Meyer Shank Racing. Brilliant first week together even if it was only P7. We went into the weekend just saying if we get a top ten we are in it and solid points to start out the season.”
Tom Blomqvist in the No.66 Sirius XM Honda started the race from 17th place and came home in 17th and speaking following the action he commented saying:
It was good to finish the race today. It was going okay, I thought I was hanging in there quite comfortably saving fuel. The last stint we went back to a black tire and just had no grip whatsoever. It was a bit of a disaster that final stint, lost some positions and I made a mistake which cost me dearly there at the end. Physically I felt miles better, obviously it’s always challenging, these cars. I’m pretty happy with that, but you obviously want to be farther up the field and just work on performance and go from there really. All in all it was a solid weekend to build upon. I learned a lot today, to get that race under my belt. It was a tough race, but we got through and just looking ahead now.
Next up is the $1 million Thermal Challenge in California in two weeks time.