Rydell wins penultimate race and claims points lead

Rickard Rydell won the penultimate STCC race of 2011 and claimed the championship lead, heading Fredrik Ekblom with five points ahead of the final race.
“I am really pleased, the car worked just as we wanted. I had a lot of pressure on me, now it is all about securing enough points for the second race,” said Rydell.

Rydell took the lead at the start and pulled up a gap straight away. Fredrik Ekblom started third but was let past by team mate Johan Kristoffersson early on and finished second.

Kristoffersson hanged on to third and secured an Volkswagen 2-3-4 with Patrik Olsson right behind.

Chevrolet driver Michel Nykjaer tried hard to get past Olsson, but did not have the pace and instead had to defend from Volvo driver Robert Dahlgren.

Thed Björk crossed the line in seventh behind Dahlgren, with a fierce battle going on behind for eighth and pole position for race two.

Mattias Andersson, Richard Göransson and Jan “Flash” Nilsson were involved in the fight. Andersson had the pace in the first part of the race but had to defend towards the end as Göransson and “Flash” gained ground.

Göransson was close to get past at one stage, but had to back off and lost time to “Flash”. Göransson and “Flash” were side-by-side for a couple of corners, but Göransson managed to get back and secure ninth behind Andersson.

Tommy Rustad lost his title chances even before the race got started. The Norwegian, placed third in the championship ahead of the race, crashed on the formation lap while warming tyres and had to retire due to technical problems.

Martin Öhlin was another first lap victim as the BMW driver got hit by Tomas Engström. The Honda driver got out on to the grass after the first corner and hit Öhlin as he re-entered the track.

Rydell heads the championship on 217 points with Ekblom on 212 points with 25 points still available in the second race.