Robert Dahlgren: “I absolutely loved today’s races”

Reigning champion Robert Dahlgren is now in the lead of the 2018 STCC drivers’ standings after two strong drives at the Anderstorp Raceway, in which the reigning champion claimed were fantastic races for him, despite not making the top step of the podium.

Dahlgren has finished on the podium in every race of the season so far, but has missed the top step while the STCC has instead seen three brand new race winners from the first four races.

In Race 1, he lost ground at the start, but battled back past the WestCoast Racing Volkswagen of former Polestar team-mate Fredrik Ekblom and the KMS Volkswagen of Johan Kristoffersson to claim third, while in the second race he fought his way from seventh to second place, and leaves the circuit 12 points clear of team-mate Daniel Haglöf in the points table.

“This is what we race for,” said a happy Dahlgren to TouringCarTimes. “I think the STCC showed its best in many ways today, I absolutely loved it. I wish I was slightly higher up in the first race, but you can’t have everything.”

With just six rounds in the 2018 STCC calendar, the championship is already one third of the way through, with the half-way point in three weeks’ time at Falkenberg, with Dahlgren gaining ground with team-mates Daniel Haglöf and Philip Morin failing to finish Race 2.

“I’m really happy with the weekend,” he added. “This early in the season, and with it being a really short championship, it’s really important to be on the podium as often as you can. You don’t want to gain (through other people’s problems), especially not with team-mates, but there’s still quite a few races to go and anything can happen.”