Polestar Cyan Racing scored its best-ever qualifying result in the World Touring Car Championship in Shanghai, with Thed Björk putting his Volvo S60 in sixth and Fredrik Ekblom in seventh.
The result marks the second time that Björk has made it through to Q3, whilst Ekblom’s seventh makes it the combined best performance for the Swedish team to-date.
“This is further underlining our progress in the recent months,” said Björk. “I am proud for everyone in the team that we made it to Q3.
“There is of course always room for improvement to catch up with the top, but I think we are in for a strong run tomorrow.”
Ekblom, who had earlier in the day shared the top times in practice with his team-mate, underlined the gains made with the car, despite having not contested a WTCC event since early June in Russia.
“I am glad for this result, especially as this is my first race in three months and I have started to work with a new engineer alongside my chief engineer on the car,” added Ekblom. “The car felt good and I am excited for the races tomorrow where I hope to make progress.”
Polestar Head of Motorsport, Alexaner Murdzevski-Schevin, believes that the team could have gone even better than their qualifying result suggested.
“We are pleased by getting one car into Q3, but we felt there was more to give today,” he added. “Overall though, we are going in the right way and we look forward to the races.”
The reverse grid will see Ekblom line up in fourth for the Opening Race, which gets underway at 14:35 local time (07:35 BST, 08:35 CEST), with Björk starting from sixth.