Prince Carl Philip takes maiden victory as Fredrik Larsson is penalised
There was no shortage of drama in the second STCC race at Falkenberg as Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte claimed his maiden victory as Fredrik Larsson, who crossed the line first, was given a 30 second penalty for an incident with title rival Thed Björk.
Bernadotte started from pole position thanks to the reversed grid rule and made a strong start, pulling up a lead of close to six seconds at most.
The race started with a bang as Volvo Polestar Racing driver Fredrik Ekblom tangled with Erik Jonsson, sending the Volvo driver into the wall and retirement before the first corner.
As the safety car headed back in, title rivals Thed Björk and Larsson, starting seventh and tenth respectively, started a strong chase up through the field.
The duo caught up with Richard Göransson, making it a trio in a hard fight behind Bernadotte. And it was this fight that culminated on the last couple of laps, resulting in a 30-second post race penalty for Larsson.
Larsson threw his car on the inside of Björk in the fight for second place, resulting in Björk being pushed off into the gravel and retiring from the race seven laps from the end.
The BMW driver was able to continue and got past Bernadotte for the lead not long after. But the joy was short lived as the stewards gave him a penalty for the incident with Björk, dropping Larsson from first to eighth.
Four-time STCC champion Göransson scored his best result this season to finish second with Mattias Andersson finishing third for Dacia Dealer Team.
The Team Kia duo of Erik Johansson and Kevin Aabol claimed positions four and five, with Jonsson finishing sixth. Emelie Liljeström improved her best ever finish by one position to finish seventh.
Björk is still in the lead of the championship on 208 points, with Ekblom second on 199 points and Larsson gaining slightly in third on 188 points. STCC heads into a summer break and continues on August 14-15th.
