Vital performance from Thed Björk in manic Macau qualifying

2017-11-17

Polestar Cyan Racing driver Thed Björk claimed a vital result in the FIA World Touring Car Championship qualifying at the Macau street circuit with fourth, despite it being his first time ever on the fearsome street circuit.

The high-speed six-kilometre circuit in the centre of Macau claimed many victims during qualifying with no less than five red flags (stoppages) due to incidents. Thed Björk did however not put a wheel wrong and qualified fourth to claim two vital points to the drivers championship that he leads by 14,5 points.

”While my goal always is to be first, I must say that I am happy with fourth considering the circumstances. There is so much adrenaline from doing a lap of Macau and we have taken a giant leap forward from the first test session yesterday to qualifying today. The races will of course be even tougher, but we are in a good position and my points from qualifying are very important for the title fight,” said Thed Björk.

Team-mates Nicky Catsburg and Néstor Girolami had a tough session, with both making contact with the wall, meaning that they were unable to take part in the final two qualifying sessions, Q2 and Q3.

”I pushed a bit too hard and hit the wall unfortunately. There is no room for error at this track. But the car is fast and we will just have to prepare ourselves as well as possible for the races and try to fight back,” said Nicky Catsburg.

”Just as Nicky, I made a mistake and that ended qualifying for me. I am sorry for the team and I hope that we can make up some ground tomorrow in the first race where I will start last. It will be a huge challenge, but the goal is of course to make up as many positions as possible,” said Néstor Girolami.

Catsburg will start eleventh in the first race and 12th in the second race while Girolami will start last in the first race and tenth in the second race.

While the incidents meant lost points to Honda, the lead is still 42,5 points in favour of Polestar Cyan Racing in the manufacturers’ championship.

”Looking at how the race weekend has progressed so far with all incidents and the amount of points that we have scored at the end of the day, I must say that this is a result to be pleased with. We must continue to push hard in the races to score as many points as possible,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.

Follow Polestar Cyan Racing in the FIA WTCC Race of Macau at: wtcc.polestar.com

WTCC Race of Macau

Circuit: Circuito da Guia

Length: 6120 m

Lap record (WTCC): 2:27.009 (Huff)

Results

Q1 – Top 5

1 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée 2:24.912

2 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée +0.485

3 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.562

4 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée +0.589

5 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.243

8 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 +1.835

10 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +2.496

Q2 – Top 5

1 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée 2:24.373

2 Esteban Guerrieri Honda Civic +0.348

3 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.598

4 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.762

5 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée

11 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 no time

12 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 no time

Q3

1 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée 2:23.995

2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.306

3 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée +0.849

4 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.151

5 Esteban Guerrieri Honda Civic +1.245

Schedule

(Times in CET)

Thursday 16/11

06:10 Free Practice 1 (45 min)

Friday 17/11

02:15 Free Practice 2 (45 min)

06:25 Qualifying

07:40 MAC3

Saturday 18/11

07:10 Race 1 (8 laps)

Sunday 19/11

03:40 Race 2 (11 laps)

Championship Standings

Drivers’ – Top 5

1 Thed Björk Volvo S60 230,5 pts

2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 216 (-14,5)

3 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 209,5 (-21)

4 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 200 (-30,5)

5 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée 187,5 (-43)

9 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 110 (-120,5)

Manufacturers’

1 Volvo 740,5 pts

2 Honda 698 (-42,5)

Compensation weights for Macau

Model – Time difference – Weight

Volvo S60 Polestar – 0.0 sec – +80 kg

Honda Civic – +0.1 sec – +70 kg

Chevrolet Cruze – +0.7 sec – +10 kg

Citroën C-Elysée – +0.8 sec – +0 kg

Lada Vesta – +1.0 sec – +0 kg

TV Schedule

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

http://www.eurosportplayer.com

2017 FIA World Touring Car Championship Entry List

No – Driver – Team – Car

3 – Tom Chilton – GBR – Sébastien Loeb Racing – Citroën C-Elysée WTCC

5 – Norbert Michelisz – HUN – Honda Racing Team JAS – Honda Civic WTCC

8 – Aurélien Panis – FRA – Zengő Motorsport – Honda Civic WTCC

9 – Tom Coronel – NED – ROAL Motorsport – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1

12 – Rob Huff – GBR – Münnich Motorsport – Citroën C-Elysée WTCC

18 – Tiago Monteiro – POR – Honda Racing Team JAS – Honda Civic WTCC

22 – Manuel Fernandes – POR – RC Motorsport – Lada Vesta WTCC

24 – Kevin Gleason – USA – RC Motorsport – Lada Vesta WTCC

25 – Mehdi Bennani – MOR – Sébastien Loeb Racing – Citroën C-Elysée WTCC

27 – John Filippi – FRA – Sébastien Loeb Racing – Citroën C-Elysée WTCC

34 – Ryo Michigami – Honda Racing Team JAS – Honda Civic WTCC

61 – Néstor Girolami – ARG – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60 TC1

62 – Thed Björk – SWE – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60 TC1

63 – Nicky Catsburg – NED – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60 TC1

68 – Yann Ehrlacher – FRA – RC Motorsport – Lada Vesta WTCC

86 – Esteban Guerrieri – ARG – Campos Racing – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1

99 – Daniel Nagy – HUN – Zengő Motorsport – Honda Civic WTCC

FIA World Touring Car Championship 2017 Calendar

WTCC Race of Morocco (Marrakech): 7-9 April

WTCC Race of Italy (Monza): 28-30 April

WTCC Race of Hungary (Hungaroring): 12-14 May

WTCC Race of Germany (Nürburgring Nordschleife): 25-27 May

WTCC Race of Portugal (Vila Real): 23-25 June

WTCC Race of Argentina (Termas de Río Hondo): 15-16 July

WTCC Race of China (Shanghai Ningbo Circuit): 13-15 October

WTCC Race of Japan (Twin Ring Motegi): 27-29 October

WTCC Race of Macau (Circuit de Guia): 17-19 November

WTCC Race of Qatar (Losail International Circuit): 30 November-1 December

Contact Details

Duncan Forrester, Public Relations and Communications

duncan.forrester@polestar.com

Johan Meissner, Media Relations

johan.meissner@polestar.com

Sunnie Zhang, Public Relations and Communications, China

sunnie.zhang@polestar.com

John Paolo Canton, Public Relations and Communications, Americas

jp.canton@polestar.com

About Polestar

Polestar is Volvo Car Group’s performance road car brand. On 17 October 2017, Polestar became a new separately-branded electric performance car company, offering a portfolio of bespoke Polestar cars. Polestar will enjoy specific technological and engineering synergies with Volvo Cars and benefit from significant economies of scale as a result of its connection to Volvo. These synergies will allow it to design, develop and build world beating electrified high performance cars far faster than other new entrants into the market.

Polestar also builds the S60 and V60 Polestar, 367hp performance road cars with over 250 developments over-and-above the standard Volvo products through its Polestar Engineered offering. It also offers Polestar Engineered performance hardware upgrades and engine software optimisations for existing Volvo products.

About Cyan Racing

Founded in 1996 and today known as Cyan Racing, the privately owned and operated company has been Volvo Car Group’s official team in motorsport since its conception. Cyan Racing has claimed multiple titles with the Volvo 850, S40, C30 and S60. Today, the company enjoys success on track with the Polestar road car brand as Polestar Cyan Racing in pursuit of both the World Touring Car Championship and Swedish GT, racing the Volvo S60 Polestar road going performance car.