Ekblom takes last gasp pole from Rydell

Fredrik Ekblom has taken pole position for the first race at the Knutstorp circuit in Sweden in the dying moments of the qualifying shootout, depriving Rickard Rydell of pole position for Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden.

The TeamBiogas.se Volkswagen Scirocco had been fastest in the earlier free practice session, but Rydell was on top in the first part of qualifying with a lap of 1:01.237.

The former British Touring Car Champion went faster still with a two lap run in Q2, setting provisional pole position with a lap of 1:01.150. Ekblom outpaced the Chevrolet driver on his last flying run as Rydell was returning to the pits, and was the only driver to break under 1:01.

The TeamBiogas.se Volkswagen Scirocco will therefore start from pole position alongside Rydell’s Chevrolet Cruze for the first race tomorrow, with the Volvo Polestar Green Racing C30 of Tommy Rustad on row two with Mattias Andersson’s MA:GP/IPS Alfa Romeo 156.

Martin Öhlin will start fifth, the top qualifying BMW driver for WestCoast Racing with Ekblom’s team-mate Patrik Olsson alongside.

Championship leader Johan Stureson qualified seventh in his MA:GP/IPS BMW 320si ahead of Colin Turkington’s Flash Engineering BMW 320si, the last placed driver in Q2.

Jan “Flash” Nilsson was top of those who didn’t make it into Q2, and will start ninth, with James Thompson lining up next to him in the second of the two Volvo Polestar Green Racing entries.

Jason Watt, who won the first race of the year for Team Bygma at Jyllandsringen qualified in 11th place, the highest placed of the four SEAT León drivers.

After a 10 minute warm-up at 9:20 CET tomorrow morning, the first race will take place at 13:05 CET.