Fourth straight victory for Thed Björk after wing failure for Larsson

Thed Björk managed to take his fourth straight STCC victory in the first and dramatic race of the day at Falkenberg from fourth on the grid.
“The team has done an amazing job during the night and the car was amazing. It was a bit hard to judge how hard to push after Dahlgren had his puncture, but it went well in the end,” said Björk.

Pole sitter Fredrik Larsson headed the field in the first part of the race but went off track in a spectacular way in the penultimate corner of the Falkenberg circuit at about mid-point of the race. Larsson retired in the gravel trap and Ekblom, who was close to him, said after the race that Larsson’s rear wing had failed.

Robert Dahlgren suffered left rear puncture right after passing the corner where Larsson had gone off and had to head in to the pits for a tyre change, losing one lap on the leaders.

Ekblom took over the lead with Thed Björk right on his heels. And it was not many laps until Björk passed Ekblom in to the first corner in an easy way.
“Björk helped me last year, it will all even out in the end. I got a good stack of points and I am quite pleased with second,” said Björk.

Even more pleased was Daniel Haglöf who finished third after a very late braking maneuver after the safety car restart from Larsson’s crash. Haglöf passed Richard Göransson and Linus Ohlsson in to the first corner, making contact with Ohlsson on the way past.
“I am so pleased. I hoped ahead of the weekend that we could take the speed we had in Gothenburg with us and it worked really well in the race,” said Haglöf.

Göransson tried hard to close in on Haglöf but had to settle for fourth ahead of Ohlsson, Jocke Mangs and Mattias Andersson. Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte scored points once again in eighth ahead of Alexander Graff and Tomas Engström.

The second race of the day starts at 15.25 CET with Ohlsson in pole ahead of Larsson.