Mattias Andersson delighted to have split the Volvos in qualifying

Dacia Dealer Team driver Mattias Andersson broke Polestar Cyan Racing’s stronghold over the top three in every session at Skövde in the qualifying one-lap shootout, outqualifying the team’s guest driver Scott McLaughlin to secure third on the grid for the first race on Sunday, and is happy to have beaten the might of the manufacturer with his relatively small one car team.

“The Volvo team is a tough competitor,” said Andersson to TouringCarTimes. “We’ve been fighting with them for many years and in these regulations they’ve been the best. Now they have three very good drivers so it’s not so easy to squeeze in, but in Q2 we made a very good lap and were almost fighting for second place.”

Andersson was the only other driver outside of the Volvos to break the 50 second barrier at the Skövde airport circuit today, with the 42-year-old STCC veteran also finishing Q1 in fourth position, securing 12 points towards the drivers’ championship.

“My goal was to do a 49, and I did a 49.9, so I thought this was good, but I was not surprised when I heard they were a couple of tenths quicker than me,” he added. “In Q2 when it’s one lap, I know some of the drivers would do some small mistakes, so it’s all about doing a 99% lap.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s battle, the Dacia driver thinks there could be some benefit to having missed out on the front row in any case.

“Second would be nice, but I think third place is better on this circuit,” he explained. “The first corner is quite tight and a right-hander, and it’s quite narrow through that corner.”