Johan Kristoffersson doubles up in Solvalla race two
Johan Kristoffersson recovered from a poor start from pole position to take his second Scandinavian Touring Car Championship victory of the weekend at Solvalla for Kristoffersson Motorsport.
Robert Dahlgren scored his second runner-up spot of the day, with Volkswagen driver Fredrik Ekblom third.
Dahlgren’s PWR Racing team-mate Daniel Haglöf endured another frustrating race in tenth after his second five-second penalty in succession.
Starting from the dirty side of the track, Kristoffersson bogged down heavily in the front-wheel-drive Volkswagen Golf GTI, handing Dahlgren a free run into the lead before turn one.
Behind, Mattias Andersson of Honda Team Sweden made another stunning start to dive in between Fredrik Blomstedt and Dennis Stranderg to claim fifth by the first corner.
After a tardy start, Kristoffersson wasted no time in rushing onto the back of Dahlgren’s SEAT Leon and made a sumptuous dive down the inside of the PWR driver under braking for the final corner.
The pair made slight contact, which bumped Dahlgren off line on exit, but Kristoffersson made the move stick on his way victory by just over 1.5s.
Andersson made a similarly daring move on the exit of the final corner to move into fourth place at the expense of Ekblom. But this did not last long as the Honda Civic suddenly slowed heading onto the back-straight.
He came into the pits and returned to the race, but ultimately finished 16th.
Andersson’s woes allowed Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky to score her first STCC points with a well-earned eighth place in the Audi RS 3 LMS. The PWR Junior driver made a series of impressive overtakes throughout, including a late dive down the inside of Micke Ohlsson and benefited from a late retirement from Andreas Ahlberg to claim a healthy points haul.
Behind the podium finishers, Blomstedt claimed another fourth place in the KMS Volkswagen, ahead of Strandberg and Joonas Lappalainen. The young Finn was right in the mix early on but lost out to Blomstedt and Strandberg after being pushed wide at the last corner by Ahlberg; he finished sixth in the Audi.
Albin Wärnelöv’s miserable weekend continued as the Lestrup Racing driver was forced to park his Volkswagen at the same spot as he ended the second test, on the exit of turn two.
Behind Lappalainen in seventh was Tobias Brink for Brink Motorsport, while Reuben Kressner followed Åhlin-Kottulinsky home in ninth, one spot ahead of the recovering Haglöf.
The third race of the day at Solvalla takes place at 15:55 CET
