Challenging Marrakech races conclude promising first WTCC third

The weekend in Marrakech, the fourth race in six weeks, saw drivers Thed Björk and Fredrik Ekblom closing the gap on the front-runners, from seconds in the first sessions to tenths in qualifying.

Competitive results in the races were stopped by crashes and very wet conditions where Thed Björk was taken out from third position in the first race.

”I was hit so hard from behind by Nicky Catsburg and dropped to last position. I was able to regain five places and Nicky apologised to me straight after the race, so no hard feelings there. Then in the last race I just had no grip, all part of the learning process as we have had virtually no wet weather testing,” said Björk.

Team-mate Fredrik Ekblom struggled in the wet second race as well, but managed to climb three positions in the first race to break into the top ten and score world championship points for the fourth race weekend in succession.

”Just as Thed said, the second race was really difficult as we have no real data to utilise for the wet yet. But the car felt better and better in the dry as the weekend progressed and I am happy to score points in the first race,” said Ekblom.

The first four races has resulted in two top five finishes, seven top ten finishes and one Q3 qualifying session for Polestar Cyan Racing.

”We just completed the most intense part of the season and so far we are quite happy with the progress. We have managed it without any major technical issues and we have broken into Q3 and finished races within the top five. The team had done a tremendous job, but this weekend also testifies that we will need to keep working hard going forward,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.

The WTCC heads into a two-weekeend break before resuming action at the very challenging Nürburgring Nordschleife on the 26-28th of May.

WTCC Race of Morocco

Circuit: Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan

Length: 3000 m

Lap record (WTCC): 1:23.087, Valente

Results

Race 1 – Top 5

1 Tom Coronel Chevrolet Cruze 21 laps

2 José María López Citroën C-Elysée +0.319

3 Yvan Muller Citroën C-Elysée +2.185

4 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +2.492

5 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +3.770

…

10 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 +16.540

11 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +22.376

Race 2 – Top 5

1 Rob Huff Honda Civic 22 laps

2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.611

3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +1.251

4 José María López Citroën C-Elysée +2.710

5 Yvan Muller Citroën C-Elysée +9.916

…

15 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1 lap

16 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 +1 lap

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

Championship standings

Drivers

1 José María López Citroën C-Elysée 138 pts

2 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 124 (-14)

3 Rob Huff Honda Civic 98 (-40)

4 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 85 (-53)

5 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 83 (-55)

…

12 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 20 (-118)

13 Thed Björk Volvo S60 19 (-119)

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.