Tommy Rustad secures first victory of 2011

Tommy Rustad secured his and Volvo’s first Scandinavian Touring Car Championship victory of 2011 in the first race of the day at Jyllandsringen.
“I am over the moon, the car was great and I really enjoyed leading from start to finish,” said Rustad.

Colin Turkington was on his own in second, crossing the line close to two seconds behind Rustad.

Things were much closer behind the leading duo. Fredrik Ekblom managed to cling on to third, securing vital points for the championship as rival Rickard Rydell retired on the first lap.

Ekblom was unable to match the pace of the two drivers in front of him and had to look in the rearview mirrors instead. But that was to no need as mate Johan Kristoffersson backed up Ekblom and held BMW drivers Johan Stureson and Martin Öhlin at bay.

Stureson tried to get past a couple of time towards the end of the race, but had to stay behind. Öhlin tried as well, but lost one position to Alfa Romeo driver Mattias Andersson.

Fabrizio Giovanardi secured eighth and pole position for the second race of the day, with team mate Casper Elgaard in ninth and BMW driver Jan “Flash” Nilsson in tenth.

The incident in which Rydell was eliminated in on the first lap also took out Richard Göransson, Gabriele Tarquini and Patrik Olsson. The incident involved six cars while Elgaard and Jason Watt were able to continue. Watt was judged responsible for the incident and penalized with two penalty rounds, dropping to 12th.