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Drivers call for more consistency from stewards following messy final race at Solvalla

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Scandinavian Touring Car Championship drivers Joonas Lappalainen and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky have demanded more consistency from the series officials on driving standards, after an incident-packed third race of the weekend at Solvalla.

Finnish driver Lappalainen was penalised for tipping Kristoffersson Motorsport driver Fredrik Blomstedt into a spin coming out of the slow Turn 3 in the middle of the final race of the day.

Having earlier felt the brunt of contact from the Honda of Marcus Annervi, the Team LMS driver was not afraid to voice his opinion over the decision-making of the stewards.

“I was on the inside of Blomstedt and he simply turned in on me,” Lappalainen told TouringCarTimes. “I was next to his door and he just kept on turning in. For that to happen and me get a penalty, I thnk it’s ridiculous.”

“The driving standards are horrible. Having driven the TT Cup in Germany, they have a clear line on contact. If someone gets hit and has to retire, they get a penalty, but here I think they miss a lot of the incidents,” he continued.

“There’s no use turning in from 20 metres out when you are making an overtake,” Lappalainen added.

For Blomstedt’s part, it was Lappalainen who was too optimistic.

He said: “It was such a foolish move. Firstly he turned me around, and then he just pushed me forward when we got to the straight. I managed to get it turned but then he hit me again.”

“Racing at this circuit, because it is so narrow, is such a gamble. You have to take the chances when they come up but it was too optimistic from him,” Blomstedt concluded.

PWR Junior driver Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky was also frustrated at the lack of action from race stewards after she was denied tenth on the last corner of the race, when Reuben Kressner bumped into his fellow Audi RS 3 driver.

“I’m going to be very honest and say from my point of view, there is too much contact in this series. There should be much more fair fighting, we are all taught you are supposed to overtake people, not drive into them,” Åhlin-Kottulinsky said post-race.

“I think they [STCC officials] should look at Heat 3. In the ADAC GT Masters drivers’ briefing, we usually talk about the previous race and any incidents, and that is not done here,” she added.

“I’m not in a position to demand this at the next briefing, but I think the goal should be for us all to cross the finish line.”