Robert Dahlgren was fastest in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) qualifying at Karlskoga, claiming 25 vital points in the championship to gain on championship leader and Polestar Cyan Racing team-mate Richard Göransson.
Dahlgren recorded the fastest lap time of all this weekend and reduced the gap from 47 to 35 points to Göransson, despite having been to the hospital earlier this week due to a stomach virus he got from his last trip to Argentina.
”I have to thank the team, they have given me a great car and I was able to set my best lap on my first. We hit the sweet spot in the setup. Now I have to recover ahead of the races tomorrow, I am still tired after the ordeal earlier this week,” said Robert Dahlgren.
Championship leader Göransson was fourth fastest in Q1 and fifth fastest in Q2, despite carrying the maximum penalty weight of 60 kilos for leading the championship and scoring maximum points in the previous race.
”I suppose the result was ok keeping the extra weight in mind. The track is really slippery, our lap times are almost two seconds slower than last year. But the big points are awarded tomorrow, lets see how far we can go then,” said Richard Göransson.
Prince Carl Philip had a tough qualifying session and will start eleventh in both races.
”I am not pleased with the result, we didn’t get it right with the setup. But there is no point in sulking over that, we’ll keep our heads down and aim to climb in the races tomorrow,” said Prince Carl Philip.
The STCC weekend at Karlskoga is the first of three remaining of the 2016 season, meaning that there is more at stake than before. The first race of this weekend starts at 13:50 CET.
”Things are usually tougher and tighter towards the end of the season, as can be seen in today’s qualifying. We must do a great job tomorrow in order to come out on top,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.
Watch the races live on svtplay.se and follow the team behind the scenes via: stcc.polestar.com
STCC Karlskoga
Circuit: Karlskoga Motorstadion
Length: 2400 m
Lap record (STCC): 1:04.560, Björk
Results
Q1 – Top 5
1 Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60 1:04.669
2 Johan Kristoffersson SEAT León +0.068
3 Linus Ohlsson Nissan SE +0.273
4 Richard Göransson Volvo S60 +0.431
5 Mattias Andersson Dacia SE +0.590
…
11 Carl Philip Bernadotte Volvo S60 +1.262
Q2 – Top 5
1 Johan Kristoffersson SEAT León 1:04.838
2 Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60 +0.399
3 Linus Ohlsson Nissan SE +0.405
4 Mattias Andersson Dacia SE +0.571
5 Richard Göransson Volvo S60 +0.663
Schedule
(Times in CET)
Sunday 14/8
13:50 Race 1
15:55 Race 2
TV Schedule
Sweden: SVT1 Live 13:30 14/8 & SVT2 – 18:10 15/8
Live online: http://bit.ly/29jLagV
Championship standings
Drivers – Top 5
1 Richard Göransson Volvo S60 238 points
2 Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60 204 (-34)
3 Johan Kristoffersson SEAT León 185 (-53)
4 Daniel Haglöf SEAT León 112 (-126)
5 Björn Wirdheim Saab 9-3 109 (-129)
…
10 Carl Philip Bernadotte Volvo S60 47 (-191)
Team – Top 5
1 Polestar Cyan Racing 447 points
2 SEAT Dealer Team 306 (-141)
3 Flash Engineering 240 (-207)
4 Dacia Dealer Team 122 (-325)
5 Brovallen Design 77 (-370)
2016 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship Entry List
Driver – Team – Car
Robert Dahlgren – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60
Richard Göransson – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60
Carl Philip Bernadotte – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60
Johan Kristoffersson – PWR Racing – SEAT León
Emma Kimiläinen – PWR Racing – SEAT León
Daniel Haglöf – PWR Racing – SEAT León
Björn Wirdheim – Flash Engineering – Saab 9-3
Reuben Kressner – Flash Engineering – Saab 9-3
Linus Ohlsson – Flash Engineering – Saab 9-3
Mattias Andersson – Dacia Dealer Team – Dacia SE
Rasmus Mårthen – Brovallen Design – Ford Mondeo
Scandinavian Touring Car Championship 2016 Calendar
31-1/5 Skövde Airport Race
26/5 Mantorp Park
18-19/6 Anderstorp
09-10/7 Falkenberg
13-14/8 Karlskoga
02-03/9 Solvalla
23-24/9 Knutstorp
About Polestar
Polestar is the performance brand of Volvo Cars. The company was founded as a motorsport team in 1996 and has been successful in numerous championships, racing with various Volvo models. In 2009, Polestar started to offer performance related products and thereby intensified the business relations with Volvo Cars. The first performance cars, based on Volvo’s S60 and V60, were launched in 2014.
In 2015, Volvo Cars acquired the performance unit of Polestar, as a strong commitment towards a credible performance offer and with the mission to define future premium performance.
About Cyan Racing
Cyan Racing is the motorsport partner to Polestar. The company is owned by Christian Dahl and handles all motorsport operations of Polestar. Cyan Racing, formerly named Polestar Racing, has claimed five STCC drivers’ titles and seven STCC teams’ titles with the Volvo 850, S40, C30 and S60.