Felix Rosenqvist is facing the harsh reality. He knows that a chance of winning a championship this season is highly unlikely. He enters Sunday’s race 13th in points (-214). To make up that much ground in eight races is a rather tall task to accomplish.

Which is why if Rosenqvist has a shot at a win from here on out, he’ll be overly aggressive in doing so.

“I think like we’re not here to be P12 or P11. I think a win or something like that would be a good way to kind of end at the end of the season,” said Rosenqvist. “I think there’s some good tracks for us coming up. Just kind of — I think more than anything, being able to string together some race results and feeling like we didn’t leave anything on the table would be a rewarding feeling after having some troubled races.

“Yeah, I know we can be there if we just do the job. Yeah, just going for the win.”

Maybe that comes this weekend. The Swedish driver was third quickset in practice on Friday (1:00.86-7-seconds) and despite a crash in Saturday morning’s session, he qualified fifth in a backup car later on in the day.

“I think you approach it a bit differently,” he said. “Maybe you try to go for a big result. I think there’s probably no chance for us to win the championship.

“I think I’m mentally more in a head space where I want to go for like — if I can go for a win, I’ll try all in, and I think a lot of us are in the same position because Alex is just taking off in the standings.

“Like I say, we’ve been super fast on one lap, and I think actually the race pace has been mega, as well.

“Just haven’t really strung a result together in the last three, four races. Looking forward to just having a solid week, and I feel like we started good here. Normally a pretty good place for us, so yeah, just looking forward to having a smooth weekend.”

Last year, Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi had late race contract while battling for a spot on the podium for which sent Rossi into the tire barriers and a 23rd place result.

Rosenqvist won the battle in scoring a podium.

Now, the duo are teammates under the McLaren banner. On the last street race, they duo found each other once again though.

On the Lap 91 restart in Detroit, Will Power went for the lead going outside Alex Palou for the top spot. Power was too wide and got into Scott Dixon. Rossi meanwhile, benefitted the most in going from fifth to second while Power slid into third and Rosenqvist remaining in fourth.

A caution would quickly occur behind.

On the ensuing restart, Power got back by Rossi for second. Rosenqvist battled back and hip checked Rossi to snag his fifth career podium while Dixon got back by Rossi to finish fourth in the aftermath.

Rossi said he would talk to Rosenqvist privately about that move. Rosenqvist said he’d oblige.

“I mean, we race hard, but I think we also race fair,” Rosenqvist said. “Obviously we like each other. We don’t have any intentions to put each other in the wall.

“But, yeah, it was tight. I think the move wasn’t really high-risk. I was completely alongside him into three. Yeah, just gets tight, man. It’s so close. He squeezed me a little bit on entry, I squeezed him a little bit on exit.

“I think it’s a good problem to have. The Arrow McLaren cars have been up there every race. You’re going to find yourself in a situation where you’re fighting teammates. I think it’s something we’ll discuss internally if we can manage it differently. Obviously there were no team calls on this one, which is cool. They let us battle it out on the track.

“Yeah, I mean, I think he actually hit the wall, but I think he got out in the marbles. I think it’s a good thing he was able to get back in.

“I have to say, I pretty much didn’t have any more room on entry. I was just trying to not go into the wall on apex. After that, I just tried to get out of the corner as quick as I can, give him the room he needed.

“As I say, we’ll talk about it. No biggy. I’m just happy we both finished up front.”

Now, both are hopeful to be battling for a win in Sunday’s race.

“It’s good to be back in my favorite city in the world. I love Toronto, and I love the track there,” said Rosenqvist. “I’ve had some of my best career highlights there, including my first podium finish with the team last year, so I’m excited to return.”

Being third on the last street race in Detroit and third the last time out here and third in practice on Friday and fifth in qualifying on Saturday has Rosenqvist as a solid sleeper.

“It was a hell of a day,” said Rosenqvist. “That was a lot of work, but we ended up P5 in the end, an amazing recovery from a crash in Practice 2.

“I sent it in a bit too hard into Turn 5 and hit the wall. I didn’t really hit hard but unfortunately damaged how the front wing came into the tub, so we had to build a brand new car ahead of qualifying.

“Basically the whole team, the No. 5 and No. 7 crew as well, came out, and there was just like a bee hive around the No. 6 SmartStop Arrow McLaren Chevrolet for three hours between practice and qualifying. We did a seat fit 50 minutes before we jumped in, and we were still doing things for the belts and stuff.

“To end up in the Firestone Fast 6 and P5 after that was just a huge statement to this whole team, having got together and got it done. It was more work than we needed, but we made it through.”