Robert Dahlgren secures pole position in wet Karlskoga qualifying

Robert Dahlgren has claimed his third pole position of the season at the Gelleråsen Arena at Karlskoga, setting the fastest time in his PWR Racing Cupra TCR in tricky conditions, just ahead of the Honda Civic TCR of Mattias Andersson.

The rain fell heavily ahead of the two-part qualifying session which presented very different track conditions to the practice sessions to the field.

There were a few excursions early-on for the Brink Motorsport Audis of Tobias Brink and Hannes Morin, and it soon became clear the Audi RS 3 LMSs were struggling the most to adapt to the conditions, with the Brink Audis all fighting to keep themselves in the top eight, with a late improvement from title contender Andreas Wernersson actually knocking his own team-mate Morin out of Q1.

In Q2, Dahlgren set the initial pace ahead of the Kågered Racing Volkswagens of first Tomas Engström, and then later Andreas Ahlberg, as everyone struggled to get good track position and a good view outside of the spray.

A late charge from Mattias Andersson put him second, just behind Dahlgren, but a last lap charge by both drivers heralded no further improvement.

Ahlberg and Engström both locked out the second row of the grid, while Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky put her PWR Racing Cupra fifth ahead of the two Brink Audis.

Tobias Brink made a last-minute improvement to go sixth, knocking team-mate Andreas Wernersson down to seventh, and in doing so stole the Race 2 pole position from his team-mate.

Wernersson will have to start both of tomorrow’s races from seventh, with Albin Wärnelöv eighth in the Experion Racing Volkswagen.

The first 17-lap race is scheduled for 12:40 CEST on Sunday, with Race 2 at 15:45.