Super-fast street race Vila Real brings Polestar Cyan Racing fourth MAC3 victory
Super-fast street race Vila Real brings Polestar Cyan Racing fourth MAC3 victory
The super-fast street race Vila Real, Portugal, brought Polestar Cyan Racing their fourth FIA World Touring Car Championship MAC3 victory of 2017 during qualifying day, extending the manufacturers’ points lead over main rivals Honda.
Thed Björk was fastest of the Polestar Cyan Racing drivers in the final Q3 session to claim third on the grid.
“I have a good feeling with the speed that I have, especially as we have 30 kilos more than Honda. It is a really big challenge to drive at this circuit, with blind corners between guardrails at over 200 km/h. But the team has done a great job with my car and we are in a good position for the races tomorrow,” said Thed Björk.
Nicky Catsburg ended up in fifth position in Q3 after suffering from a vibration issue.
“Unfortunately, I went wide in one of the chicanes and damaged the floor of the car, causing the vibration. The Hondas were a bit too fast in qualifying, but that was to be expected. This has still been a good day, especially with our MAC3 victory and I think we have a good chance of scoring a lot of points tomorrow,” said Nicky Catsburg.
Néstor Girolami was again struck with bad luck after hitting a patch of oil and touching the barriers. The incident caused front end damage to his car, with the mechanics pulling off a great effort to repair his car during qualifying. The repairs enabled the Argentinian to make it onto Q2 where he finished ninth, meaning second place on the grid for the reversed grid race.
“I hit some oil in Q1, locked my front tyres and just went into the barriers. I thought it to be impossible, but team did an awesome job to get me back out again. We scored an important result for the manufacturers’ championship with our MAC3 win and starting from the front row for the first race is really good,” said Néstor Girolami.
The MAC3 victory has Volvo in the lead by 422 points compared to Honda’s 379.
“We are really happy about the result in MAC3. We had a fantastic weekend at the Nürburgring a month ago and we are paying for that now with the extra weight. With that in mind, this has been a good day and we hope to get even more from tomorrow,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.
Follow the team during the race weekend on the streets of Vila Real with live commentary, timing and more: http://wtcc.polestar.com
WTCC Race of Portugal
Circuit: Circuito Internacional de Vila Real
Length: 4785 m
Lap record (WTCC): 1:58.385 (Huff)
Results
MAC3
1 Volvo 4:05.355
2 Honda +3.992
Q3
1 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 1:55.846
2 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée +0.684
3 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.073
4 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +3.094
5 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 no time
Q2 – Top 5
1 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 1:56.227
2 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic +0.170
3 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée +0.550
4 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.594
5 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +0.941
…
9 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 +2.220
Q1 – Top 5
1 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 1:57.010
2 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée +0.323
3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +0.477
4 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée +1.096
5 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.134
…
7 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +1.334
11 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 +2.473
Championship Standings
Drivers’ – Top 5
1 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 128 pts
2 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 127 (-1)
3 Thed Björk Volvo S60 122 (-6)
4 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée 106 (-22)
4 Rob Huff Citroën C-Elysée 106 (-22)
…
9 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 52 (-76)
Manufacturers’
1 Volvo 420 pts
2 Honda 379 (-41)
Compensation weights for Portugal
Model – Time difference – Weight
Volvo S60 Polestar – 0.0 sec – +80 kg
Citroën C-Elysée – 0.0 sec – +80 kg
Honda Civic – +0.3 sec – +50 kg
Chevrolet Cruze – +0.6 sec – +20 kg
Lada Vesta +1.2 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
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
Johan Meissner, Press Manager
+46(0)70 241 3234
About Polestar
Polestar is Volvo Car Group’s performance road car brand and was founded by Polestar Racing, today known as Cyan Racing. Polestar’s birth was a result of Cyan Racing’s race engineers desire to explore how technology behind the multiple title-winning success in racing could be applied to the performance of road going Volvo cars, on all roads and conditions in everyday life. The first road-going performance Concepts were launched in 2010 and the first performance cars, based on the Volvo S60 and V60, were ready in 2012. In 2015, Volvo Cars acquired Polestar Performance. Today, Polestar builds the S60 and V60 Polestar, a 367-hp performance road car with over 250 developments over-and-above the standard Volvo products. It also offers Polestar Engineered performance hardware upgrades and powertrain 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 en 2016
Au cours de l’exercice fiscal 2016, le résultat d’exploitation de Volvo Car Group a atteint 11 milliards de SEK (1,2 milliard d’euros), contre 6,6 milliards de SEK (697 millions d’euros) enregistrés en 2015. Le chiffre d’affaires pour cette période s’élève à 180,7 milliards de SEK (17,3 milliards d’euros), contre 164 milliards de SEK (17,3 milliards d’euros) en 2015. Sur l’ensemble de l’année 2016, les ventes mondiales ont atteint un record de 534 332 véhicules écoulés, soit une hausse de 6,2 % comparativement à 2015. 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 534 332 véhicules vendus en 2016 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 2016, Volvo Cars comptait plus de 31 000 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).