Mahindra Racing's Felix Rosenqvist has admitted that his championship hopes for Season Four are effectively over after failing to finish inside the top 10 at last weekend's Berlin E-Prix.
At the Flughafen Tempelhof circuit, Rosenqvist, who has claimed two victories so far this season, failed to secure a spot in the Super Pole shootout and lined up in seventh place on the grid.
In an attempt to improve his starting position on the first lap, Rosenqvist locked up in Turn 1, dropping down to 14th place. From then on in, the Swedish racer struggled to improve his standing in the race, crossing the line in a disappointing 11th on lap 45.
"It was sort of risky a little bit in Turn 1, trying to overtake some guys on the outside didn’t work out so after that I was down in P14 and I just couldn’t really make my way up from there. [I] was sort of struggling on pace and yeah, that’s about it," explained Rosenqvist to Motorsport Week post-race.
"We expected a lot coming here because we had a good baseline and we had a very good car here last year.
"To be honest, today I think it started off pretty well but somehow the car hasn’t been as predictable and I haven’t had the confidence and also using a lot of energy in the race somehow and we have to look why."
When asked by Motorsport Week if his championship hopes are over, Rosenqvist replied: "I think so. Yeah, unfortunately."
Despite ruling himself out of title contention with three races remaining in the 2017/18 season, Rosenqvist's personal aim is to hold onto third place in the Drivers' Championship as the Audi Abt Schaeffler pair of Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi begin to close in on the position with a late-season charge for the German marque.
"I think I want to keep the third position because last year I finished third and something naturally, you don’t want to finish worse than the year before so if I finish third or second it’s a bit better than last year," he added.
Looking ahead to next month's Zurich E-Prix, Rosenqvist described the event as a new opportunity and is aiming to find a turn around in performance.
"I haven’t really seen how it looks yet but I have heard that it’s quite short but yeah. New track, new opportunities, now it’s the same for everyone so let’s try and make it a good one,” he concluded.
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