Robin Knutsson scores his first victory in Anderstorp Race 3
Robin Knutsson has taken his first career win in the TCR Scandinavia championship in the final race of the day at Anderstorp’s Scandinavian Raceway.
Knutsson led all the way from the pole position to take the first win for defending champions Lestrup Racing Team this season, with Jessica Bäckman finishing second on her championship returning weekend, and Hugo Nerman completing the podium.
Knutsson got away perfectly from the pole ahead of Bäckman and Mattias Andersson, with Nerman fourth ahead of Tobias Brink and the two fast-starting CUPRA cars of Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Robert Dahlgren, who both passed Oliver Söderström off the line.
Brink was struggling for pace and was holding up a train of cars behind him, led by the two CUPRA cars, with Söderström behind and a closing Mikael Karlsson. Söderström was fighting to pass the two PWR Racing CUPRA cars but to no avail, and so he let teammate Karlsson through on lap eight at Mattsons curve to take up the challenge.
At the start of lap six, Åhlin-Kottulinsky was also asked to let Dahlgren through to attack Brink, and she opened the door at the first corner, which allowed Karlsson to lunge up the inside and run her wide at the exit, and she dropped down the order, eventually recovering to tenth place at the end of the race, with Karlsson receiving a warning.
Dahlgren immediately overtook Brink at the Grand Prix curve, while into the final corner, Nerman and Andersson came together as they battled for third, with Andersson coming off worse and dropped to ninth, while Nerman moved up to the final podium position; he had Dahlgren right on his tail, but he was soon able to pull out a safe distance. With three laps to go, Brink then made a mistake and ran wide at Norra, which allowed Karlsson up into fifth place.
The positions remained like this until the end of the race, with Knutsson winning by three seconds over Bäckman, who scored her career-best result in her home country, and with Nerman taking his third podium of the season with third.
Karlsson’s warning was later changed for a 10-second penalty that dropped him from fifth to 12th.
Dahlgren’s fourth place means the two-time champion further extended his points lead over teammate Åhlin-Kottulinsky to 65 points, with Brink 81 points behind.
The next round of the championship takes place at Mantorp Park on October 2/3.
Anderstorp – Race 3
1. Robin Knutsson (Lestrup Racing Team, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 12 laps
2. Jessica Bäckman (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 3.323
3. Hugo Nerman (Micke Kågered Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 7.878
4. Robert Dahlgren (PWR Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición), 9.939
5. Tobias Brink (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 15.519
Championship points
1. R. Dahlgren 236 pts.; 2. M. Åhlin-Kottulinsky 171; 3. T. Brink 155
Picture: TCR Scandinavia
