Yvan Muller and Thed Björk are both confident they can extend Yvan Muller Racing (YMR)’s recent form in the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) as the European leg of the season concludes in Slovakia.
The pair both took a race victory apiece last time out in Portugal, with Muller the current championship leader by a margin of 22 points over Gabriele Tarquini and nephew Yann Ehrlacher.
2017 WTCC Champion Björk sits a further 12 points down in fourth place, but expects a repeat strong performance from the Hyundai i30 N TCR as he believes the circuit characteristics at the 3.6 mile Slovakia Ring do not differ largely from Vila Real.
“It’s a good thing we were good at Vila Real, with one win each for Yvan and me and I’m optimistic for Slovakia because the cars will be quite similar to what they were in Portugal,” explained Björk.
“We are efficient, the guys are very good as they showed by completely rebuilding my car after my accident in Vila Real. They have even an more important knowledge of the Hyundai, and I have total confidence in them.
“We have everything to succeed, and conclude the ‘European’ season in the best way.”
Muller shared his team-mate’s optimism, with the belief that lessons learnt in Vila Real will translate well to Slovakia.
“I am approaching this race as usual, we do not change our way of doing things even though we continue to learn in this series,” said Muller.
“But the Vila Real races have allowed us to find new avenues to explore, on the cars, and we intend to put these lessons to good use this weekend to get other big results.”
The weekend starts with the opening free practice session at 11:40 BST.