At the end of the first two qualifying heats contested on Friday, Johan Kristoffersson and Martin Enlund stood out in the Supercar and Supercar Lites categories respectively.
Supercar: Johan Kristoffersson in superb form
Admittedly, the day didn’t get off to a particularly good start for Johan Kristoffersson. Only sixth in the first free practice session, won by Yury Belevskiy, the VW Polo driver then settled for second place in free practice 2, finishing in the wake of his team-mate Ole-Christian Veiby.
While everyone was eagerly awaiting his duel with Kevin Eriksson, the match between the two overall leaders has unfortunately not yet begun.
Winner of the first two qualifying heats, Johan Kristoffersson has a 13-point lead over his closest pursuer Yury Belevskiy, while Kevin Eriksson is only in third place, 22 points behind the current championship leader.
While Mats Ohman continues to impress with two Top 6 finishes in Q1 and Q2, putting him fourth in the intermediate standings ahead of Oliver Eriksson and Mikko Ikonen, Ole-Christian Veiby has lost five places following a mechanical failure in Q2, and is now eighth in the intermediate classification, one point ahead of Linus Ostlund and Viktor Vranckx.
Supercar Lites: A perfect day for Martin Enlund
Never before has Martin Enlund got off to such a good start to a weekend. Indeed, after winning the first two qualifying heats of the day, the winner of the previous round in Grenland will enter the second day of racing with a 10-point lead over Casper Jansson, who set the fastest race lap of the day.
Third-placed Eirik Hesla Berget was Friday’s pleasant surprise. Having struggled last weekend on his return to Supercar Lites competition, the Norwegian was able to demonstrate his consistency this time round, taking fourth in Q1 and third in Q2.
Behind him, things proved more difficult for the championship leader. At the end of a first day marked by mechanical problems, Simon Olofsson was only ninth, 29 points behind Martin Enlund. The same applies to Lukas Andersson.
While the young Supercar Lites rookie is using his last chance this weekend to challenge Simon Olofsson for the Supercar Lites 2023 title, mechanical problems and a ninth-place finish in Q1 relegated the 15-year-old Swede to sixth place in the intermediate classification.
