Photo: STCC

Andreas Bäckman storms to the top in second session

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Andreas Bäckman posted the first sub 60 second lap of the weekend to head the second Friday test session ahead of the STCC TCR Scandinavia event at Knutstorp.

Bäckman – who was second quickest to Robert Dahlgren earlier in the day – powered his Audi to a time of 59.956s in the session to head the similar RS 3 LMS of Hugo Nerman by more than four-tenths of a second.

The pace was all the more impressive considering that the circuit had been hit by rain in between the two sessions, albeit with conditions having improved by the time the field streamed out onto the circuit for the second time.

Mattias Andersson’s Lynk & Co and Dahlgren’s Cupra were the only other two cars to get within half a second of Bäckman’s benchmark time, with Tobis Brink and Calle Bergamn just behind.

Marius Solberg Hansen was fastest of the Volkswagen drivers in seventh spot, with Axel Bengtsson, Dennis Strandberg and Oliver Söderström rounding out the top ten – with the latter the final driver to lap within a second of the pace.

Qualifying is scheduled to kick off at 16:25 CEST.