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
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 for the Polestar Public Relations and Communications team
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.
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Volvo Car Group in 2016
Voor het boekjaar 2016 liet Volvo Car Group (Volvo Cars) een bedrijfswinst optekenen van 11 miljard SEK (EUR 1,2 miljard), tegenover 6,6 miljard SEK (EUR 697 miljoen) in 2015. De omzet voor dit boekjaar bedroeg 180,7 miljard SEK (EUR 19,1 miljard), tegenover 164,0 miljard SEK (EUR 17,3 miljard) in 2015. In 2016 verkocht Volvo Car Group wereldwijd 534.332 auto's, ofwel 6,2% meer dan in 2015. Deze recordcijfers qua omzet en bedrijfswinst betekenen dat Volvo Car Group kan blijven investeren in het wereldwijde transformatieplan.
Over Volvo Car Group
Volvo is actief sinds 1927. Vandaag is Volvo Cars een van de bekendste en meest gerespecteerde automerken ter wereld. In 2016 werden 534.332 Volvo's verkocht in ongeveer 100 landen. Sinds 2010 is Volvo Cars eigendom van Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) uit China. Het bedrijf maakte deel uit van de Zweeds Volvo Group tot 1999, wanneer het werd gekocht door het Amerikaanse Ford Motor Company. In 2010 werd Volvo Cars uiteindelijk overgenomen door Geely Holding.
In december 2016 stelde Volvo Cars wereldwijd meer dan 31.000 medewerkers tewerk. De hoofdzetel, productontwikkeling, marketing en administratie van Volvo Cars zijn grotendeels gevestigd in Göteborg, Zweden. Het hoofdkantoor van Volvo Cars voor China is gevestigd in Shanghai. De grootste autofabrieken van het bedrijf zijn gevestigd in Göteborg (Zweden), Gent (België) en Chengdu (China), terwijl de motoren worden gemaakt in Skövde (Zweden) en Zhangjiakou (China) en de carrosserie-onderdelen in Olofström (Zweden).
