Robert Dahlgren says intermediate conditions don’t suit the Cupra

Robert Dahlgren was happy to take his third pole position of the year at Karlskoga, but said the conditions at the end of qualifying weren’t playing to the PWR Racing Cupra’s strengths and hopes it’ll stay fully dry, or fully wet tomorrow.

The 39-year-old extended his lead in the drivers’ standings after securing pole position while both of his closest rivals, Tobias Brink and Andreas Wernersson, didn’t make the top five.

“I wish I could say it was easy,” said Dahlgren to TouringCarTimes.

“It felt good all the way through, and then it started to dry in Q2, and it turns out my first run in Q2 was actually my fastest.

“I was a bit worried as those greasy conditions at the end weren’t favourable for our car – but when there was a lot of rain it was good for us.

“I think we have a really good car in the dry as well – I’d rather have a race in the dry if I could choose, but if it’s raining, I want a lot of rain, or if it’s dry, it’s dry – not anything in between.”

Dahlgren starts just ahead of Mattias Andersson’s Honda Civic TCR, who the Cupra driver failed to get past despite a lengthy battle last time out at Falkenberg, and so hopes in that respect, the conditions will be wet tomorrow.

“Mattias is mega-fast at the start, and in the dry that’ll probably hurt us, but in the wet it will be a different story,” he said.