Photo: Andy Petersel

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky takes the first win of the season at Knutstorp

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Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky led a PWR Racing 1-2 in the first race of the season at Knutstorp, leading home team-mate Robert Dahlgren, and becomes the first female outright winner of a TCR series race, and also the first to lead a TCR championship.

Light snow began to fall just ahead of the race, which soon turned to rain, with the leaders all opting to start on wet tyres.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky got away well from her pole position, but the best start came from Mattias Andersson in the Honda, who blasted up from seventh to second, running alongside the PWR Cupra driver through Turn 1, but then dropped behind Tobias Brink’s Audi exiting Turn 2.

Andersson was then spun out at Turn 3 with contact from Dahlgren’s Cupra, with the experienced driver dropping to the back of the pack.

The safety car was called as the Brovallen Design Audi of Andre Kiil had failed to start, with the race restarting on lap two.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky was able to pull away as the rain started to ease, and Brink was now under attack from Dahlgren.

Dahlgren passed Brink at Turn 1 on lap six, and then started to catch Åhlin-Kottulinsky, but as the conditions changed, Dahlgren fell back into the clutches of Brink during the closing stages, and was forced to defend hard against the Audi driver, while Åhlin-Kottulinsky controlled the pace up front.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky went on to win the race by two seconds ahead of Dahlgren, with Brink finishing third.

Andreas Ahlberg finished fourth in the Micke Kågered Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, with Andreas Wernersson fifth in his Brink Audi.

Tomas Engström finished sixth in the second Micke Kågered Volkswagen, with Mattias Andersson recovering to finish seventh in his MA:GP Honda, with Hannes Morin’s Brink Audi, Peter Wallenberg’s PWR Racing Cupra and Louise Frost’s Insight Racing Alfa Romeo completing the top ten.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky now leads the championship on 30 points, ten clear of team-mate Robert Dahlgren heading into this afternoon’s second race at 15:25 CEST, where Hannes Morin starts from pole for the reversed grid race.