Thed Björk in close title fight after difficult WTCC Race of Argentina
Thed Björk in close title fight after difficult WTCC Race of Argentina
Thed Björk secured a podium finish in the WTCC Race of Argentina to keep him in a close title fight. Polestar Cyan Racing had a tough race weekend at Circuito Termas de Río Hondo with Nicky Catsburg retiring from both races despite claiming pole position and setting a new lap record.
Thed Björk fought hard to finish sixth in the first race and climbed from fifth to third in the second race. The results keep him well within reach of the title, placed second, just 12 points from the lead.
“I am happy to claim my sixth podium of 2017 and the team has fought very hard during these tough two races. My goal ahead of the weekend was to remain within striking distance of the championship lead – something we have achieved. My ambition for the next race in China is to repeat my win from last year and climb one position in the standings,” said Thed Björk.
Former championship leader Nicky Catsburg started the weekend fastest of all by claiming pole position for the main race. But both races ended in zero points for the Dutchman who suffered a total of three punctures, dropping him to fifth in the championship.
”I am obviously gutted by this, especially after starting from pole position and having the pace to win in both races. We need to have a hard look at what happened with the tyres and it will be very tough to gain back the lost points. But the team has done a great job with the car and we have four race weekends left – I will keep fighting,” said Nicky Catsburg.
Néstor Girolami fought back from technical issues to finish sixth in the second race on his home circuit.
“I did my best but we had problems with the transmission in both races. I am sorry for my local fans that I was not able to give them a podium finish. This has been an unlucky weekend for the team in total. But I have no doubt that we will be stronger in China where I hope to be back on the podium,” said Néstor Girolami.
Four race weekends and eight race heats remain of the 2017 WTCC season, with Björk 12 points from the drivers’ championship lead and Polestar Cyan Racing eight points from the lead of the manufacturers’ championship.
“The team, Nicky, Thed and Néstor did a solid job all weekend. For sure, a few odd circumstances denied us the points we deserved. However, with the performance from this weekend, we remain assured that we have the strongest package, car and drivers of the championship. With that, we look forward to the remaining races with confidence,” said Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar.
Follow Polestar Cyan Racing’s progress during the summer break ahead of WTCC Race of China on October 14-15th at: http://wtcc.polestar.com
WTCC Race of Argentina
Circuit: Circuito Termas de Río Hondo
Length: 4806 m
Lap record (WTCC): 1:43.480 (Catsburg)
Results
Race 1 – Top 5
1 Yann Ehrlacher Lada Vesta 11 laps
2 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée +0.726
3 Esteban Guerrieri Chevrolet Cruze +1.326
4 Tom Chilton Citroën C-Elysée +1.573
5 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +1.677
…
6 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +2.322
DNF Néstor Girolami Volvo S60
DNF Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60
Race 2 – Top 5
1 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 13 laps
2 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic +0.505
3 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.381
4 Esteban Guerrieri Chevrolet Cruze +6.379
5 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée +14.281
…
6 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 +14.675
16 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 +1 lap
Championship Standings
Drivers’ – Top 5
1 Tiago Monteiro Honda Civic 200 pts
2 Thed Björk Volvo S60 188 (-12)
3 Norbert Michelisz Honda Civic 171 (-29)
4 Mehdi Bennani Citroën C-Elysée 164 (-36)
5 Nicky Catsburg Volvo S60 159 (-41)
…
9 Néstor Girolami Volvo S60 68 (-132)
Manufacturers’
1 Honda 574 pts
2 Volvo 566 (-8)
Compensation weights for Argentina
Model – Time difference – Weight
Citroën C-Elysée – 0.0 sec – +80 kg
Volvo S60 Polestar – 0.2 sec – +60 kg
Honda Civic – +0.2 sec – +60 kg
Chevrolet Cruze – +0.8 sec – +0 kg
Lada Vesta +1.5 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
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 – 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
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.
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).