Polestar laments lack of wet testing after poor Russian form

Polestar Cyan Racing were left disappointed after the World Touring Car Championship races at the Moscow Raceway in Russia, with neither Thed Björk nor Fredrik Ekblom taking any points away from the weekend.

The Swedish duo failed to hook up their Volvo S60 cars at all in the wet weather, with neither driver making it out of Q1 in qualifying. That left Ekblom and Björk to start from a lowly 13^th and 15^th place on the grid for both of Sunday’s races.

Björk retired from the Opening Race due to an electrical issue on his car. The Swede was then forced to start race two from the back of the grid, from where he could make little progress to ultimately finish in 15^th position, over a minute behind the eventual winner, LADA’s Nicky Catsburg.

”This is a weekend to forget in terms of results, but not in terms of what we have learned,” said Björk. “We have taken a vital step forward in the wet compared to the wet races in Marrakech. The road is still long to reach what we want with the car, but it will come in time.

“I’m heading from Russia with strong confidence on that we are on the right path for the remaining season and especially for next year.”

Ekblom fared slightly better than his team-mate, finishing both races ahead of him on the road, but unable to make an impression on the points-paying positions. He eventually finished 13^th and 12^th respectively in the two races.

“This is the most difficult period as a racing driver in a new programme when we are starting to come close to revealing the true potential of the car, but need to take two steps back in order to move one forward,” explained Ekblom. “The situation is quite simple, we need more tests and especially in the wet. We will get that, it is just a matter of time and patience.”

Polestar Head of Motorsport Alexander Murdzevski-Schedvin looked for the positives after a disappointing weekend in Russia.

“We had one of those races that may not look so good in the result sheets, but gave us a lot to be happy about going forward,” he added. “Bring on the races in Portugal.”