Tobias Brink happy despite “chaotic” opening round at Knutstorp

Tobias Brink and the Brink Motorsport team had a strong opening round of the 2019 TCR Scandinavia Touring Car Championship, with Brink himself finishing third and fourth in the two races, and with team-mate Andreas Wernersson’s victory, the Audi squad leave with the lead of the teams’ standings.

Brink was the fastest qualifying Audi with third on the grid, and though he was up to second soon after the start, he dropped behind the Cupra of Robert Dahlgren in the race and though he had to settle for third, where he qualified.

In Race 2, Brink was the victim of a number of hits, first by Dahlgren’s Cupra heading into Turn 1, and then by Dahlgren’s team-mate Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky on lap four at the hairpin, in which she came off worse.

Brink continued to finish fourth, knocked out of a podium position by late-race contact from Tomas Engström’s Volkswagen.

“It’s been a chaotic opener,” said Brink to TouringCarTimes. “I believe I had the pace for more in the second race, but ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I got several hits in the beginning, the car felt very odd in the rest of the race. I made some personal mistakes as well.

“Andreas (Wernersson) had a good weekend with a win for the team, and it’s his first race in the car. He has a lot to learn of course, but for the team it was a very good result.”

Brink was battling for third at the start in which it was nearly an all Audi top three, until he was forced out wide by Dahlgren.

“I had a really good start but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use it,” he said. “Out of Turn 1, Dahlgren gave me a big hit and I went out into the gravel and lost to both Dahlgren and (Andreas) Ahlberg.”

“(Later in the race) it was Mikaela who attacked me at the left-hander, and I was still there at the right-hander, but I guess she didn’t see me. She turned in at the apex and unfortunately she span around. She came and talked to me afterwards and took the blame, so there’s no hard feelings.”

Brink Motorsport now head to the next round in the lead of the teams’ standings on 66 points, eight clear of last year’s champions PWR Racing.