Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky delighted with rediscovered pace at Skellefteå

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky put on a strong performance on race day at Skellefteå, finishing fourth in Race 1, battling Andreas Ahlberg’s Volkswagen for the final podium spot, while charging from sixth to second in Race 2 to form part of a PWR Racing 1-2 behind team-mate Robert Dahlgren.

The 26-year-old lucked out in qualifying after running wide on her first run, with sand blocking her radiator and reducing the car’s power, leaving her sixth on the grid for both races on Saturday.

She shot past the two Brink Motorsport Audis of Tobias Brink and Hannes Morin at the start of Race 1, and spent the whole race pressuring Ahlberg for third, while in Race 2, her progress was more steady, passing Ahlberg and Morin’s cars to move up to second by lap five, after Mattias Andersson’s Honda came in for his drive-through penalty.

The weekend was a marked turnaround compared to two weeks’ ago at Anderstorp, where the PWR Racing driver was disappointed as the team struggled to find the front-running pace she had at the Knutstorp season opener.

“I’m really happy with this weekend,” said Åhlin-Kottulinsky to TouringCarTimes.

“It was a good race. I was amazed by my start in Race 1, I’ve never done such a good start, and I found the pace was there so I was happy about that, as we didn’t have that at Anderstorp.

“In Race 2, Mattias (Andersson), did a jump start and just came through the whole field – it was a really tricky race as people were taking a few more chances, but quite soon I was up to P2 and I just had to keep my cool and keep (Andreas) Wernersson behind me.

“He’s a really quick driver, and since he won Race 1, I knew he was going to be strong. I thought if I don’t make any mistakes it’s going to be fine, but it was a little bit tricky as I made a mistake at Turn 11 two laps from the end, my pulse went really high – we had a really strong car this weekend and I’m really glad we found a good race car.”