Thed Björk withstands pressure from Fredrik Larsson to take third win
Championship leader Thed Björk withstood hard pressure from Fredrik Larsson in the first STCC race at a wet Anderstorp to claim his third straight victory from pole position.
The Volvo Polestar Racing driver got the jump on the other into the first corner while his team mate Fredrik Ekblom lost one position to Larsson.
The WestCoast Racing driver put hard pressure on Björk throughout the race, especially in the first part of the race. But Larsson was not able to get past and had to settle for second, 1.5 seconds behind.
Ekblom had pace on Larsson after a first safety car session caused by BMW driver Erik Jonsson stopping on track due to a mechanical issue. The Volvo driver was close but seemed to overheat his tyres and dropped back to ultimately finish seven seconds behind the leading duo.
Another driver on a charge in the early part of the race was Richard Göransson who originally held pole position but was moved down five places due to his incident with Emma Kimiläinen in the season opener. The Team Tidö driver climbed to fourth place, but lost a lot of ground in the second half of the race and was passed by PWR Racing drivers Daniel Haglöf and Kimiläinen.
Haglöf finished fourth, Kimiläinen fifth and Göransson sixth. Mattias Andersson crossed the line in seventh position ahead of Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte in eighth.
The second race of the day starts 15:30 CET with Erik Jonsson on pole position thanks to the reversed grid, assuming that his team are able to repair his car.
