Photo: STCC

Thed Björk claims first STCC pole of 2015 as Volvo dominates

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Thed Björk claimed the first Scandinavian Touring Car Championship pole position of 2015, beating Volvo Polestar Racing team mate Fredrik Ekblom by just 0.022 seconds.

The Volvo drivers dominated both qualifying sessions, with Fredrik Ekblom becoming the first driver to go below 50 seconds around the all-new Skövde airport circuit with 49.808 in Q1. The first qualifying session, Q1, awards points, meaning that Ekblom heads the championship ahead of team mate Björk who was second fastest, 0.064 seconds behind.

Mattias Andersson was third fastest in Q1 ahead of Richard Göransson and Fredrik Larsson. PWR Racing team mates Daniel Haglöf and Emma Kimiläinen were sixth and seventh fastest respectively.

Team Kia newcomer Erik Johansson impressed by making the Q2 session, only including the eight fastest drivers of Q1, by being eighth fastest, just below a second from Ekblom.

While positions one and two were changed to Q2, with Björk beating Ekblom, positions three to six remained the same as in Q1 with Andersson third, Göransson fourth, Larsson fifth and Haglöf sixth. Johansson continued to impress by climbing one spot to seventh ahead of Kimiläinen.

The grid for race two is determined by reversing the top ten of Q1, meaning that WestCoast Racing driver Erik Jonsson will start from pole position ahead of Volvo driver Prince Carl Philip.

The first STCC race of 2015 starts tomorrow at 12:20 CET.