Robert Dahlgren becomes most victorious STCC driver ever with Mantorp win

Robert Dahlgren broke five-time champion Richard Göransson’s all-time victory record by winning the first STCC TCR Scandinavia race of the weekend at Mantorp Park for a total of 44 victories.

The Cupra driver made the most of his pole position and headed the field from lights to flag on the wet circuit following rain earlier during the morning.

Lestrup Racing Team driver Mikael Karlsson made a rocket start from fifth on the grid to third into the first corner behind Audi driver Tobias Brink.

Another man on the move early on was MA:GP driver Mattias Andersson who started from sixth on the grid but was able to get past Andreas Bäckman for fifth position at the start of lap three.

And things turned from bad to worse for Brink Motorsport driver Bäckman who was turned around by Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky at the Mjölby corner on lap three.

Bäckman would recover back up to tenth position while Cupra driver Åhlin-Kottulinsky was handed a ten second penalty for the incident, dropping her down to seventh position.

Lestrup Racing Team colleagues Oliver Söderström and Karlsson fought hard for third place. And as Karlsson made a move for third on lap six, Andersson was quick to follow past Söderström.

The Lynk & Co driver was quickly able to get past Karlsson for third, then setting his sights on Brink in second place. And Andersson made the move stick on lap ten, claiming second place.

Dahlgren won the race by close to 14 seconds ahead of Andersson and Brink.

Karlsson was close to Brink in fourth position, with Söderström in fifth and Anderstorp race winner Robin Knutsson in sixth.

Dahlgren heads the standings by 80 points over PWR Racing team-mate Åhlin-Kottulinsky with 105 points still left to be fought for in the remaining races.

The second race of the weekend starts at 13:20 CEST.