Johan Kristoffersson leads KMS lock-out in second Falkenberg test
Johan Kristoffersson set the fastest time during the second test at Falkenberg, beating Kristoffersson Motorsport team-mates Fredrik Blomstedt and Fredrik Ekblom to lead a Volkswagen clean-sweep.
Ominously, Kristoffersson’s time of 44.893 – the only one to break the 45 second barrier – was nearly a full three-tenths quicker than KMS team-mate Fredrik Blomstedt and over three and a half tenths faster than the third VW of Fredrik Ekblom.
PWR had a stronger second test with Robert Dahlgren and Daniel Haglöf ending the session fourth and fifth, while Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky the best of the Audis in sixth for the Junior team.
For many of the teams, the session was the first opportunity to test the new harder S9L Michelin tyres, introduced by the STCC to match the TCR International standard Balance of Performance (BOP).
A key beneficiary of the switch to the S9Ls was Audi, who continued their strong form from the first test and rounded out the rest of the top ten. The Brink Motorsport cars of Tobias Brink and Micke Ohlsson finished eighth and ninth respectively – sandwiching the Brovallen Design RS 3 LMS of Reuben Kressner and Joonas Laapalainen.
After amassing a staggering 54 laps in the first test, Nicklas Oscarsson again completed the most amount of mileage in the second, this time putting in 58 laps of the Falkenberg circuit. The Stockholm-local took his Kia Cee’d to 16th place as the TeamA Teknik team continue to develop the car throughout the season.
In contrast to the rest of the field though, Kristoffersson was comfortably fastest on the fewest amount of laps. The winner of five rounds already this year completed just 19 laps in his Golf GTI and holds the cards heading into qualifying.
While the KMS VWs locked out the first three positions, the rest of the Golf GTIs struggled to match the pace, and languished in the lower regions of the mid-field. The best non-KMS runner was Dennis Strandberg in the Lestrup Racing car, with the Micke Kågered VW of Andreas Ahlberg having another low-key session one place behind.
After yet another engine problem curtailed his running in the opening test, Marcus Annervi had an untroubled run in the second and managed to post the 11th fastest time, lapping just seven-tenths off the ultimate time set by Kristoffersson.