Brink scores first TCR Scandinavia win for Audi
Tobias Brink won an eventful second race at Anderstorp and scored Audi’s first success in TCR Scandinavia. Robert Dahlgren claimed an important second position in his effort to retain the champion’s crown, as his teammates Daniel Haglöf and Philip Morin did not score. Fredrik Ekblom completed the podium in third position.
Mattias Andersson’s Honda Civic took a perfect start from the pole on the reverse grid and led from the Brink Motorsport’s Audi RS3 LMS cars of Brink and Micke Ohlsson.
Behind the leading trio, Fredrik Ekblom dropped from fourth to seventh during the first lap, as he was passed by Dahlgren, Haglöf and Andreas Wernersson; however, he was able to keep Johan Kristoffersson behind.
Race 1 winner Morin went off and remained stranded in the gravel trap, prompting the safety car into action; when the race resumed, Andersson went wide at the last turn of lap 4 and retired because of a puncture; Brink inherited the lead and was closely followed by Ohlsson and Dahlgren.
There was a tough fight for the fourth position, as Haglöf’s Cupra was under the pressure of the Volkswagen Golf cars of Ekblom, Wernersson and Kristoffersson. On lap 8, Haglöf missed the braking point at the end of the long straight and went wide; then he pitted to change the front tyres.
With two laps to go, Ohlsonn suddenly slowed down and dropped from second to sixth. Brink took the chequered flag with a margin of two seconds ahead of Dahlgren who resisted the final assaults from Ekblom; Kristoffersson and Wernersson were classified fourth and fifth, followed by Ohlsson and Andreas Ahlberg.
Dahlgren has taken the lead in the standings with 73 points, 12 more than Haglöf; Kristoffersson and Wernersson have moved on to third and fourth, 16 and 21 points behind the leader.
The series will resume at Falkenberg on July 7th and 8th.
