Patrik Olsson leads Östersund test session

IPS Team Biogas’s Patrik Olsson lead the first practice session for the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship’s first visit to the Östersund airport circuit in his Volkswagen Scirocco CNG, ahead of reigning champion Rickard Rydell’s Chevrolet.

Rydell led much of the session, setting a best time of 55.139 seconds around the latest addition to the STCC’s calendar, but with less than a minute to go Olsson pipped Rydell by 0.099 seconds in the Volkswagen Scirocco of IPS Team Biogas.

Team Biogas.se’s Johan Kristoffersson was third fastest in the sister VW Scirocco, with Olsson’s team-mate Johan Stureson setting the fourth best time.

Jordi Gené was fifth, meaning all four Volkswagens were in the top five, with Michel Nykjaer in the second of the Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Cruzes going sixth fastest, just over half a second down on Olsson.

The two SEAT Team Sweden SEAT Leóns, powered by Next Generation Touring Car-spec 2.0 litre turbocharged engines, were both within a second of Olsson, with Robin Appelqvist leading Santosh Berggren in seventh and eighth positions. Honda’s Tomas Engström rounding out the top nine and was the last of the turbo-powered drivers.

Semcon Cup points leader Niclas Olsson was fastest in his class and tenth overall in the normally aspirated SEAT León.

Qualifying takes place at 20:25 CET, which will set the grid for both of tomorrow’s races.