Photo: STCC

Forsman takes maiden STCC victory from Kimiläinen in chaotic first race

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Philip Forsman claimed his maiden STCC victory in the first Falkenberg race of the weekend which turned out to be chaotic. Emma Kimiläinen took the lead for the first part of the race but made a mistake and dropped to second and came under hard pressure from a storming Thed Björk in the closing laps of the race.

PWR Racing driver Kimiläinen had pulled up a big race after making a perfect start from pole position. But her lead disappeared as the safety car was brought out after a spectacular crash between Saab driver Richard Göransson and Volvo driver Fredrik Ekblom.

The incident started when Björk made his way past Linus Ohlsson who got a slow exit of turn one. Göransson tried to go on the outside of Ohlsson who closed the door on the Saab driver. This enabled Ekblom to get up alongside Göransson who a corner later lost control of his Saab and crashed into the side of Ekblom, meaning a retirement for both drivers and major damage to the cars. The Volvo Polestar Racing team has reported that they are unsure whether Ekblom’s car will be ready for the second race.

As the safety car went back in, Kimiläinen made a mistake and went off track briefly, enabling Forsman to take the lead. As Björk managed to get past Kia driver Andreas Wernersson for third position, the Volvo driver started to gain quickly on the leading duo of Kimiläinen and Forsman.

The trio fought hard for the final laps of the race, but their positions remained stationary with Forsman winning ahead of Kimiläinen and Björk.

Championship leader Fredrik Larsson made his way up to fourth position ahead of Dacia Dealer Team driver Mattias Andersson in fifth and Wernersson in sixth.

Linus Ohlsson and Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte had a clash in the closing stages of the race, with Ohlsson diving on the inside of Bernadotte who turned in. Bernadotte was later penalized with a drive through penalty, which he did not take, meaning a 30 second penalty.

The second race of the weekend starts at 15.30 CET.