Thed Björk and Polestar Cyan Racing head to WTCC finale with one mission – to win both titles

2017-11-30

Championship leaders Thed Björk and Polestar Cyan Racing are heading to the closest FIA World Touring Car Championship season finale in eight years this week in Qatar where Björk could become Sweden’s first motor racing World Champion.

Thed Björk, the four-time Swedish champion, is leading his main rival and Honda driver Nobert Michelisz by 6.5 points in the drivers’ championship.

”My lifelong dream and goal is to become World Champion and I am in a great position to deliver with the best team I have ever driven for. I have a very strong rival for the title and I‘m sure we are in for a very tough fight that won’t be decided until the very last lap of the last race. We can’t afford to put a wheel wrong but I feel confident ahead of the challenge. Our car is faster than ever and I have two very fast team-mates. Bring it on!” said Thed Björk.

Nicky Catsburg has got a mathematical chance of claiming the title, but is trailing his team-mate by 44 points with 60 points left to be fought for. His focus is therefore on helping Thed Björk.

”While I am satisfied with my speed this year, there have been too many incidents for me during the season which means that I am effectively out of the title battle. My 100% focus will be on helping Thed secure the driver’s title and together claim the team title. It is going to be really close, but I have no doubt that we have the strongest car and team in the championship and can beat Honda in Qatar,” said Nicky Catsburg.

Quadruple WTCC champion, Yvan Muller will make his race debut for Polestar Cyan Racing in the Qatar season finale, replacing Néstor Girolami who will focus on development work ahead of 2018. The Frenchman will bring invaluable experience to the team, having raced at Qatar before and completed thousands of development laps in the Volvo S60 Polestar TC1 race car.

”I am glad to be back racing again and am proud of everyone in the team that we have got ourselves into the position of leading both championships ahead of the finale. My objective is to help Thed win the title and together as a team, secure the team title. We have tough competitors but I am confident that we can beat them,” said Yvan Muller.

Polestar Cyan Racing is heading main rivals Honda by 12.5 points ahead of Qatar with 117 manufacturers’ points still left to be fought for.

”We will have a real nail-biting finish to this year’s WTCC season and we have a super-tough race weekend ahead of us, that’s for sure. Honda will give its outmost and so will we. We have one objective - win both titles,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.

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

WTCC Race of Qatar

Circuit: Losail International Circuit

Length: 5380 m

Lap record (WTCC): 2:01.628 (López)

Schedule

(Times in CET)

Thursday 30/11

16:30 Free Practice 1 (45 min)

19:15 Free Practice 2 (45 min)

Friday 1/12

12:30 Qualifying

13:40 MAC3

19:20 Race 1 (10 laps)

20:35 Race 2 (12 laps)

Championship Standings

Drivers’ – Top 5

1 Thed Björk Volvo S60 255,5 pts

2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 249 (-6,5)

3 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 216 (-39,5)

4 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 211,5 (-44)

5 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée 210,5 (-45)

9 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 112 (-143,5)

Manufacturers’

1 Volvo 804,5 pts

2 Honda 792 (-12,5)

Compensation weights for Qatar

Model – Time difference – Weight

Volvo S60 Polestar – 0.0 sec – +80kg

Honda Civic – +0.0 sec – +80kg

Citroën C-Elysée – +0.2 sec – +60kg

Chevrolet Cruze – +0.7 sec – +10kg

Lada Vesta – +0.7 sec – +10kg

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

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

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

64 – Yvan Muller – FRA – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60 TC1

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

86 – Esteban Guerrieri – ARG – Honda Racing Team JAS – Honda Civic WTCC

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 for the Polestar Public Relations and Communications team:

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.