Photo: PWR Racing/Oscar Malmlund

Robert Dahlgren heads Oliver Söderström to first pole of 2022

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Reigning champion Robert Dahlgren claimed the first pole position of the 2022 STCC TCR Scandinavia season, beating Lestrup Racing Team driver Oliver Söderström by 0.184 seconds.

The field took to the one-lap “Shoot Out” session on a sunny and dry track, starting in reversed order from the combined results of the two practice sessions of yesterday.

Tobias Brink took his Audi RS 3 LMS to third place, 0.224 seconds from PWR Racing driver Dahlgren, with Brink Motorsport team-mate Hugo Nerman in fourth, two further tenths behind.

Exion Racing driver Isac Aronsson impressed by setting the fifth fastest time, half a second from pole.

STCC newcomer Axel Bengtsson was sixth fastest for PWR Racing, albeit of a second from his team-mate Dahlgren.

Dennis Strandberg claimed the seventh fastest time behind the wheel of his ex-Rob Huff Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, with Calle Bergman rounding off the top eight for Exion Racing. Bergman suffered a technical issue in qualifying yesterday, with the team forced to change engine overnight.

Disaster struck MA:GP driver Mattias Andersson who received a two-second penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping him from sixth to 12th position.

Three drivers had off-track excursions, with Dejan Dragicevic and Andreas Bäckman briefly going off into Turn 1 and Marius Solberg Hansen going off at Turn 6 after having set the fastest first sector.

Update: Rasmus Hedberg and Christian Skaar have had their times deleted. Hedberg’s Cupra failed the ride height check while Skaar was penalised for hindering Didrik Esbjug.

The Feature Race of 18 laps starts at 14:30 CEST.