Robert Dahlgren tops the first practice session at Gelleråsen

PWR Racing driver Robert Dahlgren was fastest of all in the first free practice session at the Gelleråsen Arena near Karlskoga, just pipping the Honda Civic TCR of Mattias Andersson in the final few minutes.

The two drivers swapped first place throughout the 30 minutes, with Andersson the first driver to go under the 1:08 barrier, before Dahlgren improved and put his PWR Racing Cupra on top with a time in the low 1:07s.

With just over ten minutes to go, Andersson went even faster with a time of 1:06.956 in his Civic Type R FK2 TCR, before Dahlgren obliterated that time with a lap of 1:06.588, nearly four-tenths of a second faster, set with just five minutes remaining.

That time stood until the end of the session, with Andersson finishing second, and with Hannes Morin the best of the four Audis in third place, eight-tenths of a second off the pace.

Tobias Johansson, on his racing return after eight years away from Swedish touring cars, was fourth fastest in his Brovallen Design Audi RS 3 LMS, just ahead of title contender Andreas Wernersson’s rival Audi.

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky was sixth quickest in her Cupra, with Tomas Engström, in a new white-liveried Kågered Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR seventh and the last driver within a second of Dahlgren’s time.

Tobias Brink’s Audi, and the two Volkswagens of Andreas Ahlberg and Albin Wärnelöv completed the top ten.

The second test gets underway at 12:20 CEST, before qualifying at 15:15 when a large rain storm is set to hit the circuit.