Brink leaps to the lead with double victory at Mantorp Park

Tobias Brink has assumed the lead of the TCR Scandinavia championship standings, after he and his team won all three races at Mantorp Park. Brink won races one and two, with teammate Hannes Morin scoring his first career victory in the reversed grid Race 3.
In the first race, Brink led the way from pole position, followed by Rob Huff, the only Lestrup driver in the race after Oliver Söderström stopped on the formation lap, with the fast-starting Mattias Andersson up to third. Andersson was soon pushed out of the way by Emil Persson at the Paris corner, with Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky following him through.
Championship leader Robert Dahlgren was making progress from the final row, working his way up to fifth by half-distance, but was having to fight a rear-guard action to keep Hannes Morin behind him. At the finish, Brink won just ahead of a closing Huff, with Persson crossing the line third, but was soon demoted to fourth after receiving a five-second penalty post-race, which handed Åhlin-Kottulinsky her first podium of the season.
In Race 2, Brink again led the way from pole, with Söderström in second quickly and dutifully falling behind his teammate Huff, with Söderström’s title charge now effectively over following the DNF in Race 1. Söderström then fell behind Persson but was able to retake the spot in lap ten, only to go off two laps later with a broken wheel, handing Persson back the podium spot. Brink won by a more comfortable two seconds from Huff in Race 2, with Persson this time able to keep his podium trophy; with teammate Mikael Karlsson fourth, ahead of Andersson, who’d held back Dahlgren and Åhlin-Kottulinsky for almost the whole race.
Morin started from pole for the reversed grid Race 3, and quickly began to pull away, as Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Dahlgren swapped second and third between them behind him. Behind, Huff was working his way forwards from seventh, passing two cars on the opening lap, and then being assisted by the chasing Brink through Andersson to grab fourth at Paris on lap six, the latter then held back Brink for fifth until the end.
The championship will come to an end next week at Knutstorp; Brinks leads the standings by 14 points over Huff, with Dahlgren in third position a further three points behind.

Race 1
1. Tobias Brink (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14 laps
2. Rob Huff (Lestrup Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 0.427
3. Emil Persson (Kågered Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 7.039
4. Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky (PWR Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición), 11.198
5. Robert Dahlgren (PWR Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición), 17.161

Race 2
1. Tobias Brink (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14 laps
2. Rob Huff (Lestrup Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 1.882
3. Emil Persson (Kågered Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 7.293
4. Mikael Karlsson (Kågered Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 22.372
5. Mattias Andersson (MA GP, Honda Civic Type R FK2), 25.183

Race 3
1. Hannes Morin (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14 laps
2. Robert Dahlgren (PWR Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición), 1.526
3. Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky (PWR Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición), 2.138
4. Rob Huff (Lestrup Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 4.209
5. Tobias Brink (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 20.325

Championship points
1. Tobias Brink 153 pts; 2. Rob Huff 139; 3. Robert Dahlgren 136 

Picture: TCR Scandinavia