Photo: STCC

Philip Forsman wins crash-filled Knutstorp Race 1

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Philip Forsman won the first Scandinavian Touring Car Championship race at Knutstorp that was packed with incidents which saw just eight cars finishing the race.

Erik Jonsson started from pole position and held the lead for the first part of the race. A first safety car session came after a light rain shower which saw Mattias Andersson stopping his Dacia on track in a dangerous position.

As the safety car went back in again, it was not long until a big crash involving five cars brought out the safety car again. The incident was started by Jonsson going slow through the fast corner three which forced Richard Göransson, in second place, to take avoiding action. Linus Ohlsson tried to go on the inside of Göransson, resulting in the two spinning off track in spectacular fashion and taking Fredrik Larsson, Fredrik Ekblom and Emma Kimiläinen with them.

Saab driver Göransson, championship leader Larsson and Volvo driver Ekblom retired after the incident while Kimiläinen and Ohlsson were able to continue.

This left a field of only eight cars for the final four laps which main event was a fight for second place. Forsman made his way past team mate Jonsson straight after the safety car went in, leaving Jonsson to defend second place from Thed Björk and Andreas Wernersson.

BMW driver Jonsson drove defensively while Björk tried everything to get past. But Björk lost third position on the final lap as he tried to overtake Jonsson on the outside of the first corner, enabling Wernersson, who had served a drive through penalty for not having his tyres mounted in time for the race, to get past.

Jonsson finished second ahead of Wernersson in third, Björk in fourth and Mattias Lindberg in fifth. Kimiläinen fought her way back past Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte to sixth position, with Ohlsson resuming the race after pitting for repairs to take eighth and last place.

The retirement of title rivals Larsson and Ekblom has brought Björk right back to the fight, currently three points behind Larsson in second place and Ekblom being demoted to third, seven points behind Larsson.