Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky on cloud nine after historic victory

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky has praised her team and hails her victory in the second race at Karlskoga as the best of her career, after defeating STCC giants Mattias Andersson and Johan Kristoffersson to score her first victory at the Gelleråsen Arena.

The PWR Racing Cupra driver made a perfect getaway from pole position and pulled away from Andersson’s Honda Civic TCR to win the race by three seconds, with Kristoffersson fighting his way through to claim the final podium position.

The 25-year-old was buoyed after setting the fastest time in the morning warm up, though a driveshaft failure in Race 2 meant she was unable to make the finish.

“I just want to start from pole for every race,” said Åhlin-Kottulinsky to TouringCarTimes.

“I was a bit nervous going into today as I knew I had pole, but when I was fastest in the warm up I thought OK, I know I have good pace; but then in Race 1 when we had technical issues, everything got away from us and I thought that in Race 2, anything can happen. I just tried to make a good start and then see what happens.

“I got a little bit of a gap (to Andersson), and then when I saw he was catching a little bit, I just tried to breath, relax and focus on my main points and it just went perfect from thereon.”

The win is Åhlin-Kottulinsky ’s first in four years, and the first for a female racer in both the STCC and top level TCR competition.

“I had a win in the Scirocco Cup in 2014 which I’ve been proud of ever since, but now this is the best victory of my career,” she said. “I’m most of all happy for my team, we’ve been working hard every session making one step forward and we totally deserved this.”