Robert Dahlgren extends his points lead with Falkenberg Race 1 victory

Robert Dahlgren has claimed his third win of the 2019 TCR Scandinavia Touring Car Championship at Falkenberg, fighting off an early charge from the Audi of Tobias Brink to win by over two seconds in his PWR Racing Cupra TCR, with team-mate Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky taking her third podium finish of the year with third.

Dahlgren started from pole and he and Brink went head-to-head in the first corner, making minor contact, but Dahlgren came out ahead, with Åhlin-Kottulinsky right behind the battling pair.

From then on, Dahlgren slowly edged away from Brink, with Åhlin-Kottulinsky keeping a watching brief in third, while it was the Honda of Mattias Andersson who found himself racing through his wing mirrors throughout much of the race.

The Brink Audi of Andreas Wernersson had passed Andreas Ahlberg’s Micke Kågered Volkswagen for fifth on the second lap, and after that , Wernersson harried Andersson’s MA:GP Honda Civic TCR for the duration of the race, but was unable to find his way past the experienced STCC racer.

Ahlberg was focussed on the fight ahead and found himself passed on lap ten by his Kågered Racing team-mate Tomas Engström at the start-finish straight, but the two drivers swapped back positions later in the race.

Dahlgren went on to win by 2.4 seconds, with Brink second and Åhlin-Kottulinsky third.

Andersson held on to fourth, falling nearly 20 seconds behind the leader at the end of the race, with the chasing pack of Wernersson, Ahlberg, Engström and Albin Wärnelöv right behind him.

Dahlgren’s victory sees him extend his lead in the drivers’ standings to 26 points over Wernersson, while Brink now moves up to third in the overall classification ahead of Ahlberg.

The second race of the day takes place at 15:20 CEST, with Wernersson starting from pole position.