Hard work for Polestar Cyan Racing in tough Marrakech qualifying

”I am pleased with process we have made in such short time, wrapping your head around how to make the car fast on a street circuit is a completely different thing. I am looking forward to make the most of second row grid position for the first race and we will continue the work on improving the car for tomorrow,” said Thed Björk who was eighth fastest in Q2.

Team mate Fredrik Ekblom had a tough qualifying session, posting the 13th fastest time of Q1, meaning that me missed out on the Q2 session by a mere 72 thousands of a second.

”We made some changes ahead of qualifying that did not turn out the way we wanted to. I am obviously not pleased, but it is part of the tough learning process of this championship. We will work further on the setup for tomorrow but 13th on the grid will not be easy. I will just keep my head down and try to make up as many positions as possible,” said Fredrik Ekblom.

The results means that Ekblom will start from 13th position on the grid for both races while Björk will line up third for the reversed grid of the first race and eighth for the second race.

”Again an impeccable effort from the team and drivers during every step today. We gathered the valuable data we aimed for which will serve us well in the continued development of the car,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.

The first race of the weekend starts at 12:15 WEST tomorrow and the second at 17:15. Watch both races live on Eurosport and follow the team with live behind the scenes updates on: www.twitter.com/cyanracing

WTCC Race of Morocco

Circuit: Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan

Length: 3000 m

Lap record (WTCC): TBC

Results

Q3

1 Rob Huff Honda Civic 1:21.743

2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.036

3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +0.083

4 José María López Citroën C-Elysée +0.162

5 Nicky Catsburg Lada Vesta +0.418

Q2 – Top 5

1 José María López Citroën C-Elsyée 1:21.457

2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.006

3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +0.010

4 Rob Huff Honda Civic +0.283

5 Nicky Catsburg Lada Vesta +0.647

…

8 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.780

Q1 – Top 5

1 Rob Huff Honda Civic 1:21.750

2 José María López Citroën C-Elysée +0.068

3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +0.184

4 Nicky Catsburg Lada Vesta +0.220

5 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.309

…

7 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.432

13 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 +0.906

Schedule

(Times in WEST)

Sunday 8/5

12:15 Race 1 (21 laps)

17:15 Race 2 (22 laps)

Championship standings

Drivers

1 José María López Citroën C-Elysée 108 pts

2 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 97 (-12)

3 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 77 (-29)

4 Rob Huff Honda Civic 65 (-46)

5 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 57 (-52)

…

11 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 19 (-87)

11 Thed Björk Volvo S60 19 (-87)

TV Schedule

International: https://www.fiawtcc.com/watch-it-on-tv/

Online: http://www.eurosportplayer.com/

About Polestar

Polestar is the performance brand of Volvo Cars. The company was founded as a motorsport team in 1996 and has been successful in numerous championships, racing with various Volvo models. In 2009, Polestar started to offer performance related products and thereby intensified the business relations with Volvo Cars. The first performance cars, based on Volvo’s S60 and V60, were launched in 2014.

In 2015, Volvo Cars acquired the performance unit of Polestar, as a strong commitment towards a credible performance offer and with the mission to define future premium performance.

About Cyan Racing

Cyan Racing is the motorsport partner to Polestar. The company is owned by Christian Dahl and handles all motorsport operations of Polestar. Cyan Racing, formerly named Polestar Racing, has claimed five STCC drivers’ titles and seven STCC teams’ titles with the Volvo 850, S40, C30 and S60.