Robert Dahlgren scores double pole position at Skellefteå

Robert Dahlgren has taken two pole positions in TCR Scandinavia at his home circuit near the northern Swedish town of Skellefteå for PWR Racing, outpacing the field in the two qualifying heats in his CUPRA.
The 2019 champion waited until late in the first part of qualifying to set a time, placing his Leon Competición on top of the time sheets with just over five minutes to go, with his closest rival that of the MA:GP Lynk & Co 03 of Mattias Andersson, with the experienced drivers showing the way, at least initially.
A stunning last-minute flyer from Andreas Ahlberg in the Kågered Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI put him second-quickest. Andersson tried to respond but could only find another six hundredths of a second, which was not enough to retake the second position.
A big name dropped out in Qualifying 1, as Tobias Brink missed the cut in his Audi RS 3 LMS, finishing the session ninth, just behind Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky’s CUPRA, which just made it through.
In the short ten-minute Qualifying 2 heat, Dahlgren put down an unbeatable benchmark straight away, with a time of 1:52.413, which no one else could get anything near.
His teammate abandoned her first run behind him, and headed back out with a fresh set of Yokohama tyres with just enough time to get another run in. Åhlin-Kottulinsky briefly made it a PWR Racing 1-2, before Andersson split the pair on his final run right behind her, putting his Lynk & Co second on the grid for Race 2 tomorrow, and picking up the four qualifying points in the process.
Dahlgren’s Q2 pole earned the two-time champion five points, and he extended his lead to 21 points over Andersson ahead of tomorrow’s races.
The first race at the Skellefteå Drivecenter is scheduled for 12:40 CEST.

Skellefteå – Qualifying 1
1:53.016 Robert Dahlgren (PWR Racing CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:53.150 Andreas Ahlberg (Kågered Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI)
1:53.509 Mattias Andersson (MA:GP Lynk & Co 03)
1:53.717 Mikael Karlsson (Lestrup Racing Team Volkswagen Golf GTI)
1:53.760 Hugo Nerman (Kågered Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI)

Skellefteå – Qualifying 2
1:52.413 Robert Dahlgren (PWR Racing CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:52.828 Mattias Andersson (MA:GP Lynk & Co 03)
1:52.884 Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky (PWR Racing CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:52.998 Mikael Karlsson (Lestrup Racing Team Volkswagen Golf GTI)
1:53.177 Hannes Morin (Brink Motorsport Audi RS 3)

Championship points
1. R. Dahlgren 65 pts.; 2. M. Andersson 44; 3. T. Brink 43

Picture: TCR Scandinavia