Thed Björk and Polestar Cyan Racing secured a vital result in the final FIA World Touring Car Championship qualifying session of 2017 at Losail International Circuit in Qatar to extend the lead in both championships.
Björk qualified fourth, seven places ahead of his main title rival Norbert Michesliz and has extended his lead to 8.5 points over the Honda driver who will start eleventh in both races. Björk will start sixth in the first race and fourth in the final.
”The car is so much better today and I am happy with our result in qualifying. It was for sure nice to extend my lead over Norbert, but it is all about the final two races where we have 55 points to race for. I have a very good feeling ahead of the title decider,” said Thed Björk.
Nicky Catsburg was fastest of the Polestar Cyan Racing drivers in qualifying to claim second position on the grid.
”The car didn’t feel better than yesterday, but we are obviously much closer to the Honda drivers which is very good. We will do our best to win both titles in the final two races this afternoon,” said Nicky Catsburg.
Yvan Muller showed strong form in all three sessions with second, third and fifth positions respectively in his first ever WTCC qualifying run for Polestar Cyan Racing.
“I am happy with my result and the performance of the team. This was my first qualifying session in over a year but the feeling is good and we were competitive which is the important bit,” said Yvan Muller.
The three drivers together claimed the seventh MAC3 victory of the season for Polestar Cyan Racing to extend the manufacturers’ points lead to 17,5 points over Honda.
”Nicky, Thed and Yvan has done a great job so far today. The team has really taken a leap forward from practice yesterday when we were struggling. To extend our championship lead and win MAC3 feels extremely rewarding,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.
For more information on the 2017 WTCC season finale: wtcc.polestar.com
WTCC Race of Qatar
Circuit: Losail International Circuit
Length: 5380 m
Lap record (WTCC): 2:01.628 (López)
Results
Q3
1 Esteban Guerrieri Honda Civic 2:00.893
2 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +0.414
3 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée +0.418
4 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.664
5 Yvan Muller Volvo S60 +1.000
Q2 – Top 5
1 Esteban Guerrieri Honda Civic 2:01.302
2 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +0.087
3 Yvan Muller Volvo S60 +0.303
4 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée +0.405
5 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.612
Q1 – Top 5
1 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 2:01.634
2 Yvan Muller Volvo S60 +0.023
3 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +0.183
4 Esteban Guerrieri Honda Civic +0.283
5 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée +0.368
…
6 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.709
Schedule
(Times in CET)
Friday 1/12
19:20 Race 1 (10 laps)
20:35 Race 2 (12 laps)
Championship Standings
Drivers’ – Top 5
1 Thed Björk Volvo S60 257,5 pts
2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 249 (-8,5)
3 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 216 (-41,5)
4 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 215,5 (-42)
5 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée 210,5 (-47)
…
9 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 112 (-145,5)
17 Yvan Muller Volvo S60 1 (-256,5)
Manufacturers’
1 Volvo 823,5 pts
2 Honda 806 (-17,5)
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
61 – Yvan Muller – FRA – 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 – 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
Duncan Forrester, Public Relations and Communications
Johan Meissner, Media Relations
Sunnie Zhang, Public Relations and Communications, China
John Paolo Canton, Public Relations and Communications, Americas
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.