Prince Carl Philip and Thed Björk secure podium in eventful Swedish GT weekend at Falkenberg
Prince Carl Philip and Thed Björk secure podium in eventful Swedish GT weekend at Falkenberg
The second round of the 2017 Swedish GT at Falkenberg was eventful for the Polestar Cyan Racing duo of Prince Carl Philip and Thed Björk, claiming a podium finish in the final race, fighting Ferrari, McLaren and Audi teams.
Third place in the second race could have been better, had the duo not been hindered by a GTB class driver stopping in the wrong position during the mandatory pit stop, blocking the exit for Björk who had just taken over the wheel from Prince Carl Philip.
Björk fought hard to catch up with the leading duo, slashing a 16-second gap to just 2.6 seconds over the finishing line to claim the third podium finish of the season for the team.
“There was nothing I could do but wait until they moved the car, I am not happy. The car was great and I gained quickly on Brunstedt in second place, but there were just not enough laps. A disappointing weekend but we are competitive and that is the important thing for the coming races,” said Thed Björk.
The duo was strong in qualifying, with Björk securing second place in the first session and Prince Carl Philip equalling the position in the second session. A retirement in the first race and third place in the second race has dropped Prince Carl Philip to fourth in the championship.
“The incident in the pits was unfortunate and very costly for us. I am happy with my stint in the second race though, keeping within striking distance of the lead – a nice comeback from yesterday’s retirement. This was not the best of weekends but we have not lost too many points and I remain positive for the remainder of the season,” said Prince Carl Philip.
Despite the lost positions in the drivers’ championship, Prince Carl Philip is still just nine points from the lead with three race weekends left of the season.
“Thed, Prince Carl Philip and the whole team did an impeccable job today. A second-place finish was minimum of our capacity but the pit stop chaos denied us that. I can’t say that we are happy with third in the race or our position in the championship, but we will keep fighting,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.
The next Swedish GT race takes place at Karlskoga on August 12-13th: http://swegt.polestar.com
Swedish GT Falkenberg
Circuit: Falkenberg
Length: 1843 m
Lap record (STCC): 0:43.283 (Ekblom)
Results
Race 1 – Top 5
1 Jan Brunstedt Audi R8 LMS Ultra 43 laps
2 Mattsson/Larsson Ferrari 488 +0.349
3 Mäkinen/Krüger Ferrari 458 +13.733
4 Palm/Eriksson Porsche 911 GT3 Cup +15.428
5 Behrens/Roos McLaren 570S +1 lap
…
DNF Bernadotte/Björk Volvo S60
Race 2 – Top 5
1 Mattsson/Larsson Ferrari 488 35 laps
2 Jan Brunstedt Audi R8 LMS Ultra +10.776
3 Bernadotte/Björk Volvo S60 +13.585
4 Mäkinen/Krüger Ferrari 458 +34.451
5 Krister Andero Porsche 911 GT3 Cup +1 lap
Qualifying 1 – Top 5
1 Fredrik Larsson Ferrari 488 43.549
2 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.285
3 Oscar Palm Porsche 911 GT3 Cup +0.409
4 Jan Brunstedt Audi R8 LMS Ultra +0.472
5 Oscar Krüger Ferrari 458 +1.170
Qualifying 2 – Top 5
1 Jan Brunstedt Audi R8 LMS Ultra 43.723
2 Carl Philip Bernadotte Volvo S60 +0.595
3 Peter Eriksson Porsche 911 GT3 Cup +1.607
4 Ingvar Mattsson Ferrari 488 +1.787
5 Krister Andero Porsche 911 GT3 Cup +1.940
Championship standings
GTA – Top 5
1 Fredrik Larsson Ferrari 488 80 points
1 Ingvar Mattsson Ferrari 488 80
3 Jan Brunstedt Audi R8 LMS Ultra 76 (-4)
4 Carl Philip Bernadotte Volvo S60 64 (-9)
5 Kari Mäkinen Ferrari 458 54 (-26)
5 Oscar Krüger Ferrari 458 54 (-26)
…
7 Thed Björk Volvo S60 46 points (-34)
2017 Swedish GT Entry List
No – Driver – Team – Car
GTA Class
7 – Kari Mäkinen – Euroracing – Ferrari 458
7 – Oscar Krüger – Euroracing – Ferrari 458
11 – Toni Persic – TPR Motorsport – Chevrolet Camaro
13 – Carl Philip Bernadotte – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60
13 – Thed Björk – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60
25 – Peter Eriksson – TBA – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
45 – Krister Andero – TBA – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
67 – Erik Hjeltman – Brovallen Design – Ford Mondeo
98 – Jan Brunstedt – JB Motorsport – Audi R8 LMS Ultra
99 – Ingvar Mattsson – Mattsson Motorsport – Ferrari 488
99 – Fredrik Larsson – Mattsson Motorsport – Ferrari 488
GTB Class
20 – Philip Morin – Mtech Competition – Porsche Cayman GT4
20 – Linus Pröjtz – Mtech Competition – Porsche Cayman GT4
21 – Håkan Ricknäs – Ricknäs Motorsport – Porsche Cayman GT4
21 – Thomas Martinson – Ricknäs Motorsport – Porsche Cayman GT4
31 – Hans Söderholm – Ricknäs Motorsport – Porsche 911 GT4
31 – Marcus Söderholm – Ricknäs Motorsport – Porsche 911 GT4
45 – Krister Andero – TBA – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
50 – Thomas Belfrage – Euroracing – Ferrari 360
51 – Peter Larsen – Primus Racing – Ginetta G55
51 – Johan Rosén – Primus Racing – Ginetta G55
60 – Franck Århage – Århage Racing – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
65 – Bror Ellfolk – TBA – Ginetta G55
65 – Niclas Lindström – TBA – Ginetta G55
88 – Erik Behrens – Alfab Racing – McLaren 570S
88 – Daniel Roos – Alfab Racing – McLaren 570S
2017 Swedish GT Calendar
Date Circuit Country
04-06 May Knutstorp Sweden
07-09 July Falkenberg Sweden
11-13 August Karlskoga Sweden
01-03 September Anderstorp Sweden
14-16 September Mantorp Park Sweden
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, were ready in 2012. In 2015, Volvo Cars acquired Polestar Performance. Today, Polestar builds the S60 and V60 Polestar, 367 hp performance road cars with over 250 developments over-and-above the standard Volvo products. It also offers Polestar Engineered performance hardware upgrades and engine software optimisations for existing Volvo products.
In the future, Polestar will become a new separately-branded electrified high-performance car company. Polestar will offer a portfolio of bespoke Polestar branded cars that will no longer carry a Volvo logo. 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.
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).