Photo: Mediaempire.se

Fredrik Ekblom fastest in practice at Knutstorp

By

Volkswagen driver Fredrik Ekblom was on top of the timesheets in the Friday practice session ahead of qualifying in the Team Biogas VW Scirocco, ahead of MA:GP/IPS driver Mattias Andersson and Volvo’s Tommy Rustad.

Andersson had set the pace for much of the session, but in the final five minutes Ekblom upped the pace, setting a best time of 1:01.739.

Andersson would end up second in his MA:GP/IPS Alfa Romeo 156, with Tommy Rustad in third, just 0.119s down on Ekblom.

Roger Eriksson was fourth fastest in the SEAT Dealerteam León, with Colin Turkington putting in a last minute improvement to go fifth, just ahead of team-mate Jan “Flash” Nilsson.

Championship leader Johan Stureson’s MA:GP/IPS BMW 320si was the third fastest of the BMWs, and seventh overall.

Rickard Rydell was the fastest of the two Chevrolet drivers in eighth place, with team-mate Viktor Hallrup down in 17th, 1.2 seconds off the pace at the short Knutstorp circuit.

Martin Öhlin, the sole representative of the WestCoast Racing team was tenth fastest, with Tomas Engström’s Honda Accord just outside the top ten, with James Thompson in 12th in the second of the two Polestar Racing Volvos.

The next session is qualifying at 16:20 CET, followed by the top eight shootout for the grid.