Rustad wins ahead of Magnussen in close premiere

Tommy Rustad won the first Scandinavian Touring Car Cup race of the year after a close fight with Jan Magnussen and Richard Göransson.
“It was a good race for me and I am positively surprised. I was thinking about letting Magnussen past, but he drove very professionally,” said Rustad to the official championship site.

Magnussen started fifth but quickly gained a couple of places in the beginning of the race. He put hard pressure on Robert Dahlgren for second and was able to get past early on.

Magnussen then tried really hard in the closing stages to get past Rustad for the lead, but remained second.
“It feels nice to be second, just as long as we beat the Swedes. I drove the car for the first time today, so this is a good result for us,” said Magnussen.

Richard Göransson finished third, after having gotten past Dahlgren, and started to put pressure on Magnussen on the last couple of laps. Top three was covered by just half a second.
“I was hoping to get past Rustad with Magnussen, but at the same time I did not want to risk too much. I am pleased with third,” said Göransson.

Rival BMW-driver Thed Björk had a dark start of the season. The Flash Engineering driver dropped a couple of places in the first corner and then got hit from behind by Mattias Andersson.
“I am very disappointed, Andersson tried to get past three cars in one corner. After that my car was damaged and very difficult to drive,” said Björk.

Björk dropped to 20:th position, later climbed to 12th, while Andersson received a penalty for the incident.

Dahlgren dropped to fourth after his third grid position, right ahead of Johan Stureson and Fredrik Ekblom.