Photo: Racefoto.se

Andreas Wernersson rues Karlskoga Race 1 penalty’s impact on points

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Andreas Wernersson had his worst weekend of the season at Karlskoga, with the Brink Motorsport driver slipping a position in the standings to team-mate Tobias Brink, helped by a points-decimating penalty in the first race due to an incident with Tomas Engström.

Wernersson had struggled along with the other Brink Motorsport Audi drivers in qualifying, and found himself knocked out of the top six by his own team-mate Brink, meaning he’d miss the reversed grid opportunity as well and start both races from seventh.

Making little progress initially at the hard-to-pass Gelleråsen Arena, Wernersson was able to pass Brink when his Audi team-mate was knocked wide by Tomas Engström’s Volkswagen with three laps to go at the last corner, but then Wernersson ran straight into the rear of Engström’s car at Turn 1 on the next lap, punting him wide which earned him a ten-second penalty, which dropped him from fifth to ninth in the final order.

From seventh on the grid in Race 2, Wernersson made his way up to fourth, taking advantage of the melee ahead which saw Robert Dahlgren and Engström retire in an incident with the Honda of Mattias Andersson, to at least recover some good points from the weekend.

“I think qualifying was really bad for us, when you miss the reversed grid and you’re starting too far back,” said Wernersson to TouringCarTimes.

“In Race 1, I made a mistake on the straight and hit Tomas; I apologised after, but I know he’s angry. I got penalised and got only one point, so it was pretty disappointing.

“Given Dahlgren didn’t finish the second race, to have had those ten points in Race 1 it would have made it pretty interesting.

“I think the championship is a little bit tighter, and it’s now wide open.”

Wernersson has now slipped from nine points behind Dahlgren to 18 behind, while team-mate Tobias Brink has moved up to second in the standings and is now three ahead of him, with the Volkswagen of Andreas Ahlberg just six points back with four races to go.”