Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky “super-happy” after dream start to the season

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky has said she’s delighted with the start to her 2019 campaign, after securing pole position and race victory, though regrets the Race 2 incident with Tobias Brink’s Audi which meant she left the second race pointless and gave up the lead of the championship.

The 26-year-old PWR Racing driver secured pole position in a bizarre qualifying session was saw Q1 and Q2 split by a hail storm, leading to a misjudgement by many as to which tyres to run. With some running all slicks, some split, it was Åhlin-Kottulinsky’s call to run all wet tyres at the end of the session which rewarded her with first outright pole position.

She converted that into a race victory in Race 1, staying clear of the battle behind between team-mate Robert Dahlgren and Tobias Brink, while in Race 2 she was edging her way forward but came off worse whilst fighting Brink’s Audi for fifth at the hairpin on lap four.

“I’m a little pissed off after Race 2,” said Åhlin-Kottulinsky to TouringCarTimes. “(After Race 1) I was of course, really happy, but I had to keep myself focussed for the second race.

“The start of this season has been fantastic. I could not have dreamed about taking pole position, winning the first race from pole and also having good speed. I also had good speed in Race 2, but unfortunately there was an incident and then I was out of the race, but sometimes that’s what happens – but I’m still super-happy with our performance this weekend.”