Daniel Haglöf thanks rivals for “better” exhaust in Norway

Daniel Haglöf facetiously thanked his rivals after scoring a comfortable pole position at Rudskogen in Norway in his PWR Racing Cupra TCR, which is now running with the same exhaust system as the Volkswagens this weekend.

Haglöf secured his second career pole position at the 3.3km circuit, lapping four-tenths faster than last year’s champion Robert Dahlgren, with the Cupra TCRs outpacing the KMS and WestCoast Racing Volkswagens, which are now carrying the same amount as ballast as them.

Haglöf was excluded and lost his Race 1 victory from three weeks’ ago at Karlskoga after a protest from WestCoast Racing, while Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky saw her record-setting win for Race 2 wiped out following a similar protest from the MA:GP Honda team.

“It has been turbulent few weeks since Karlskoga,” said Haglöf.

“I felt that we had done everything right, especially since SEAT and Cupra have officially stated that our interpretation is correct. We have always followed the guidelines of STCC, and for this race they told everyone to add mufflers and we have done.

“Right now, it feels like our cars are performing even better, so I have to thank the team that appealed our dampers as it looks like we have more punch in the cars now.

“The best thing in all of this is that it has made the team work even harder together, and today we proved that it does not matter which interpretation of the regulations we used, we are fastest of them all anyhow.”