Thed Björk crowned the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship season finale in Qatar with his second podium finish of the season for Polestar Cyan Racing, climbing into the top ten of the drivers’ championship.
The four-time STCC champion crossed the line of the final race in second, a mere second behind race winner Mehdi Bennani, putting hard pressure on the Citroën driver throughout the race.
”The team gave me a great car and I had the pace on Mehdi, but he did a really good job with no mistakes and left no room for me to pass. While I of course wanted our second win, this result really underlines our progress in the final part of the season with a victory, two podiums and two Q3 sessions in the past two race weekends,” said Thed Björk.
Team-mate Robert Dahlgren had two tough races with one retirement but managed to secure his first world championship points of 2016 in the first race with seventh position.
”Result-wise I am not pleased, we hade the pace for more. But I am very pleased to see our development work taking us up through the field. The team did a great job with the car this weekend and I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel again,” said Robert Dahlgren.
The 2016 WTCC was a learning season for Polestar Cyan Racing as start of a long-term programme but still resulted in one victory, two podium finishes, three Q3 sessions, five top five finishes and 23 top ten finishes.
”To end the season with a main race podium finish is a morale booster that everyone in the team wanted. Thed did an amazing job, fighting hard to catch up with the leader and fight for the win. This learning year has definitely left us with a taste for more and exceeded all of our expectations,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.
WTCC Race of Qatar
Circuit: Losail International Circuit
Length: 5380 m
Lap record (WTCC): 2:01.628 (Lopez)
Results
Race 1 – Top 5
1 Gabriele Tarquini Lada Vesta 14 laps
2 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée +6.617
3 Rob Huff Honda Civic +7.246
4 Yvan Muller Citroën C-Elysée +8.968
5 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +9.648
…
6 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +10.137
7 Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60 +11.108
Race 2 – Top 5
1 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 15 laps
2 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.176
3 José María López Citroën C-Elysée +4.815
4 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +10.575
5 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +11.827
…
DNF Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60
Championship standings
1 José María López Citroën C-Elysée 381 points
2 Yvan Muller Citroën C-Elysée 257 (-124)
3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 214 (-167)
4 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 212 (-169)
5 Medhi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 206 (-175)
…
10 Thed Björk Volvo S60 117 (-264)
13 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 45 (-336)
15 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 12 (-369)
19 Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60 6 (-375)
TV Schedule
International: https://www.fiawtcc.com/watch-it-on-tv/
Online: http://premium.fiawtcc.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 six STCC drivers’ titles and eight STCC teams’ titles with the Volvo 850, S40, C30 and S60.
-----------------------------
Volvo Car Group en 2015
Au cours de l’exercice fiscal 2015, le résultat d’exploitation de Volvo Car Group a atteint 6,62 MSEK (698 millions d’euros), contre 2,128 MSEK (224 millions d’euros) enregistrés en 2014. Le chiffre d’affaires pour cette période s’élève à 164,043 MSEK (17,3 milliards d’euros), contre 137,590 MSEK (14,5 milliards d’euros) en 2014. Sur l’ensemble de l’année 2015, les ventes mondiales ont atteint un record de 503 127 véhicules écoulés, soit une hausse de 8 % comparativement à 2014. Ces ventes historiques couplées à un résultat d’exploitation record particulièrement encourageant, incitent Volvo Car Group à poursuivre ses investissements vers sa transformation à l’échelle mondiale.
À propos de Volvo Car Group
Volvo existe depuis 1927. Aujourd’hui, Volvo est une des marques automobiles les plus connues et les plus respectées au monde, avec 503 127 véhicules vendus en 2015 dans une centaine de pays. Volvo Cars appartient à la société chinoise Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) depuis 2010, et était rattaché jusqu’en 1999 au groupe suédois Volvo Group, lorsque la compagnie a été rachetée par l’américain Ford Motor Company. En 2010, Geely Holding a acquis Volvo Cars.
En décembre 2015, Volvo Cars comptait plus de 29 000 employés à travers le monde. Le siège social, le développement produit, le marketing et l’administration de Volvo Cars sont principalement situés à Göteborg, en Suède. Le siège de Volvo Cars en Chine se trouve à Shanghai. Ses principales usines de production de voitures se situent à Göteborg (Suède), Gand (Belgique), et Chengdu (Chine) ; les moteurs sont fabriqués à Skövde (Suède) et Zhangjiakou (Chine), et les éléments de carrosserie à Olofström (Suède).
