Isabell Rustad opens Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia season with top-5 charge at Anderstorp
- RACERS
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Isabell Rustad opened her 2026 Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia season with a solid and encouraging performance during the opening weekend at Anderstorp, securing eighth and fifth-place finishes in the championship’s first two races and leaving sixth in the overall standings.
Isabell Rustad opened her 2026 Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia season with a solid and encouraging performance during the opening weekend at Scandinavian Raceway, Anderstorp, securing eighth and fifth-place finishes in the championship’s first two races and leaving sixth in the overall standings.
Competing in one of Scandinavia’s most competitive one-make championships, Rustad showed consistent progress throughout the weekend despite facing a difficult second qualifying session that complicated her starting position for the final race.
Rustad, in her second year in the championship, began the 2026 season opener with a positive first qualifying session, where she was satisfied with her pace despite the incredibly tight competition at the front of the field. Her lap time left her just 0.65 seconds away from pole position, set by Marcus Annervi, but the small margins meant she still qualified only eighth.
“I was reasonably happy with Q1 and was only 0.65 seconds behind Marcus Annervi’s pole position time, but it was only enough for eighth place, which shows how close the competition was at the front,” Rustad explained.
The second qualifying session proved significantly more frustrating. During her first push lap, Rustad struggled with tyres that had not yet fully reached operating temperature, causing the car to slide. She lost control and ended up in the gravel trap before she could set a competitive lap time, leaving her with a difficult 13th-place starting position for the second race of the weekend.
“I wasn’t happy with my own performance in Q2,” she admitted. “On my first push lap, with the tyres still a bit too cold, I lost the rear of the car and ended up in the gravel. I didn’t manage to set a time, which gave me a difficult starting point for the second final.”
In the opening race, Rustad lined up eighth on the grid and made a clean start, though she was unable to gain positions during the early stages. Running in a tightly packed field of identical Porsche 992 GT3 Cup machinery, overtaking opportunities proved extremely limited, and she eventually crossed the line in eighth place.
“I felt I lacked a bit of pace to move forward through the field,” Rustad said. “We are all driving identical cars, and it’s difficult to overtake unless the drivers ahead make mistakes. It also requires the perfect balance in the car if I want to advance, and that’s one of the big challenges in this sport.”
The second race offered a much more positive outcome. Starting from 13th on the grid, Rustad made a strong launch and immediately gained several positions in the opening laps. She then steadily worked her way through the field with consistent pace and calculated overtakes.
A couple of Safety Car periods caused by incidents and off-track excursions for other competitors helped bunch the field back together, allowing Rustad to stay in contention and continue her recovery drive. Taking advantage of the restarts and maintaining solid pace throughout the race, she climbed all the way to fifth place by the chequered flag.
The result marked her second-best finish so far in Porsche Carrera Cup and represented an important boost early in the championship campaign.
“In terms of results, fifth place is very good and something I’m really happy with,” Rustad commented. “Several drivers were unfortunate and went off, but that’s part of motorsport, so we take a strong result from the weekend.”
Thanks to her strong recovery and consistent points haul across both races, Rustad leaves the opening round sitting sixth overall in the Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia standings.
The championship will next head to Gelleråsen Arena for the second round of the season on May 30–31, where Rustad hopes to continue building momentum.
“We will keep focusing and working on what we can improve before Gelleråsen,” she said. “I’m looking forward to having a test day on the Friday before the races so we can prepare ourselves as well as possible for what will be an important race weekend for us.”
