Rydell claims vital pole position – Ekblom third

Rickard Rydell secured a vital pole position in the final qualifying session of STCC 2011. The Chevrolet driver secured pole with a massive 0.384 seconds over Fredrik Ekblom’s team mate Johan Kristoffersson.
“This was awesome. I got a perfect lap and much thanks to Michel [Nykjaer]. I had a really good tow from him and without that the gap would have been in hundredths and not tenths,” said Rydell.

While the Chevrolet team used slipstreaming beautifully, the Volkwagen Team Biogas.se did not use it despite four cars in the team. Championship leader Ekblom is going to start third and was over half a second slower than Rydell.
“It was not possible to match Rickard’s time, not without slipstreaming, but we had not practiced that before. But it feels good to have my team mates around me,” said Ekblom.

Volkswagen got all four cars in to Q2 with Kristoffersson best in second and Patrik Olsson right behind Ekblom in fourth.

Nykjaer is going to start fifth ahead of top Volvo driver Robert Dahlgren in sixth. Newly signed Volkswagen driver Thed Björk managed seventh fastest time ahead of top BMW in the form of reigning champion Richard Göransson.

Martin Öhlin was first driver outside the top eight, a mere 0.027 seconds shy of making it in to Q2. Jan “Flash” Nilsson claimed tenth ahead of title contender Tommy Rustad in eleventh.

Other front runners that failed to make it in to the top ten were Mattias Andersson in 12th, Johan Sturesson in 15th and Colin Turkington in 16th.