Andreas Bäckman winner for the second consecutive year

Andreas and Jessica Bäckman were back this weekend in TCR Europe, which was held in Barcelona, Spain. In Race 2, Andreas Bäckman got his first victory for this season.
- It feels amazing to finally get a victory, after the difficult start to the season, says Andreas Bäckman.

This weekend, October 9^th-11^th, the fourth round of the TCR Europe Championship was held in Barcelona, Spain. The Swedish siblings Jessica and Andreas Bäckman looked forward to coming back and competing in Barcelona, as the track is one of the favourite tracks on the calendar for both.

Difficult conditions in Race 1
The weekend started well for the Sweden National Team drivers, with good speed during the Free Practice. Jessica qualified as 9th and Andreas as 10th in the Qualifying, which meant starting positions 9 and 10 for Race 1 on Saturday.

Saturday's race was a challenging race, as the track had just dried up and was still a bit wet from a previous rain shower. Jessica got into trouble with another driver earlier in the race, which meant that she lost a lot of time and places down to a 15^th place in the end. Andreas managed to stay out of trouble and reached a 7th place in the end.

Close to a double victory
For Race 2 on Sunday, it was the reverse grid starting order for the top 10 after the Qualifying, which meant that both Bäckman siblings were starting in first row, with Andreas in pole position as 1^st and Jessica in 2^nd.

Both of them had good starts and pulled away at the beginning, then halfway into the race Jessica was hit from her 2^nd place and went off the track, which ruined the chances of a double victory for the siblings.

- It was very sad that the weekend would end like this, the whole team had the speed and potential to be first, second and third in race 2, sad for the whole team that the collision would end like this. Actually, I had an almost perfect weekend until the race’s and the long-awaited double victory was close, but it's just a matter of recharging for the next race weekends, says Jessica Bäckman.

Andreas extended the lead during the race and managed to take his first victory of the season, and also repeated his win from last year on the same track.

- It feels amazing to finally get a victory, after the difficult start of the season with both crashes and also my injury from the crash in Zolder, Belgium. This win was very much needed, and it gives both me and the team a good "boost" for the next two final races of the season, says Andreas Bäckman.

The next round will take place next week at the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on October 22^nd-24^th.

Andreas’ results:
Free Practice 1: 8^th
Free Practice 2: 9^th
Q1 (Qualifying 1): 9^th
Q2 (Qualifying 2): 10^th
Race 1: 7^th
Race 2: 1^st

Jessica’s results:
Free Practice 1: 3^rd
Free Practice 2: 2^nd
Q1 (Qualifying 1): 1^st
Q2 (Qualifying 2): 9^th
Race 1: 15^th
Race 2: 18^th

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