Media) | T: +46 (0)73-267 16 83 Maria Johansson (Honda Sweden) | T: +46 (0)73-699 07 09

Streets of Marrakech next up for Honda Racing team Sweden

Marrakech, April 15, 2015

Having scored in both races of last month’s curtain-raiser in Argentina, Honda Racing team Sweden and Rickard Rydell now face a set of entirely different challenges as the FIA World Touring Car Championship hits the streets of Marrakech for round two of the season this weekend.

The WTCC’s visit to Morocco marks the first of two street events on the 2015 calendar, the second being staged at Portugal’s Vila Real circuit in July. The 4.6 km Circuit Moulay El Hassan is laid out on roads in the Agdal district of southern Marrakech, and primarily features a mix of long straights and quick chicanes – with the layout allowing for an average lap speed of close to 160 km/h.

Supporting the Honda Racing team Sweden bid in Morocco will be a delegation of Swedish Honda dealers, all of whom have qualified for a weekend at the track through a national sales competition.

As always in the WTCC, both of Sunday’s two races are broadcast LIVE by Eurosport.

For team quotes ahead of round two of the 2015 WTCC campaign, please see next page.

FAST FACTS – MARRAKECH

 With the exception of 2011, Marrakech has been a regular fixture on the WTCC calendar since 2009. The WTCC’s arrival in Morocco spelled the return of international motor racing to the country following a 51- year absence, dating back to the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix – won by Stirling Moss – in Casablanca.

 Rickard Rydell has raced at Marrakech once before, taking part in the inaugural event in 2009. After crashing out of the opening heat, he was unable to take the start in race two.

 Morocco holds a special place in Honda Racing team Sweden’s DNA; in 2013, the Circuit Moulay El Hassan was the site of a maiden WTCC win for project co-initiator NIKA Racing. The giant-killing triumph came courtesy of Denmark’s Michel Nykjær.

 Mehdi Bennani, competing for Citroën, is the only Moroccan driver on the 2015 WTCC grid.

ROUND 2 WTCC Race of Morocco | Circuit Moulay El Hassan

Circuit Data Lap length: 4.624 km Race distance: 2 ×14 laps

Lap Records Race: José María López (Citroën C-Elysée WTCC), 1m43.704s (157.776 kph), 13/04/2014 Qualifying: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C-Elysée WTCC), 1m43.706s (157.770 kph), 12/04/2014

CONTACT DETAILS FURTHER INFORMATION Nicklas Karlsson (team principal) | T: +46 (0)73-342 83 83 www.hondaracingteamsweden.se Stefan Lindberg (sporting director) | T: +46 (0)70-587 93 35 www.honda.se Mattias Persson (PR/media) | T: +46 (0)73-267 16 83 www.fiawtcc.com Maria Johansson (Honda Sweden) | T: +46 (0)73-699 07 09

TEAM QUOTES

Rickard Rydell (driver)

”I’ve driven at Marrakech once before, and it’s certainly a street circuit with its very own characteristics. There are some really fast chicanes, long straights and tight corners, which make for entertaining races. There is always a lot going on, particularly at the start. Our main challenge remains the fact that we’ve done a lot less testing than our rivals, but we’ve got three 30-minute practice sessions before qualifying this weekend and we will take everything we can out of those. We learned a lot in Argentina, and we will be aiming to do the same in Marrakech.”

Nicklas Karlsson (team principal)

”Marrakech is a very special event for us. Our victory there two years ago not only marked the international breakthrough for our organisation, it also effectively laid the platform on which we built the entire Honda Racing team Sweden project.

”Things are obviously different this time around, however, and we head to Morocco with very much the same cautious optimism we carried into the season-opener. For logistic reasons, we are unable to conduct any testing before we’re back to Europe in early May, so we basically pick up where we left off in Argentina. We view Marrakech as another opportunity to learn about the car, with the aim of reducing the gap primarily to the works Hondas. I am also happy to welcome the board of our partner Cricket, and our group of dealers from Honda Sweden, to the track this weekend.”

Elisabeth Levinsohn (head of marketing, Honda Sweden)

”It’s great to finally have the season underway in full swing. For Marrakech, Rickard Rydell will have his very own fan club on site, in the shape of 20 of our skilled dealers who will be treated to a weekend of world-class racing after excelling in a sales competition. It will provide them with a perfect respite following the launches of the new Civic and CR-V models last week. We are all looking forward to an exciting weekend both on and off the track.”

HONDA RACING TEAM SWEDEN Sweden’s only world championship-level motor racing outfit. Announced at a press conference in Stockholm in early 2014, the project has come to fruition thanks to the combined efforts of Honda Sweden and specialist motorsport squad NIKA Racing, which competed in the WTCC back in 2013. Back then, the team managed to claim an impressive three overall race wins despite holding privateer status, but a radical rules overhaul ahead of 2014 saw the arrival of the new TC1 era – which heralds a set of entirely new challenges for the Honda Racing team Sweden venture. NIKA Racing also ran Rickard Rydell to the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship title. www.hondaracingteamsweden.se

RICKARD RYDELL 47-year-old Rickard Rydell is one of Sweden’s most experienced and successful racing drivers of the modern era, having clinched titles in both the British (1998) and Scandinavian (2011) Touring Car Championships and becoming the first-ever Swede to claim victory in the prestigious Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix in China (1992). Rydell raced full-time in the WTCC between 2005 and 2009, with 2015 marking his return to the international touring car arena as he embarks on an all-Swedish attack on the world championship – flying the flag for Honda Racing team Sweden. www.rickardrydell.com

HONDA CIVIC TC1 WTCC Rickard Rydell’s weapon for the 2015 WTCC campaign is a brand new Honda Civic TC1 WTCC, built to the latest and most advanced set of technical regulations. The car had its shakedown test at Italian Honda tuner JAS Motorsport’s facilities on the outskirts of Milan in late February, before being flown to the curtain-raising round in Argentina. The introduction of the TC1 regulations in 2014 has made WTCC cars faster – and more spectacular – than ever before.

FIA WTCC The FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) is sanctioned by international motorsport governing body the FIA, and currently features entries from Honda, Citroën, Lada and Chevrolet.

The 2015 WTCC campaign boosts 12 rounds staged all across the world, taking teams and drivers to a wide variety of venues and exotic locations. Among new additions to the calendar are Buriram, Thailand, and a season-ending visit to Qatar, while a much-talked-about mid-May appearance at the fabled Nürburgring Nordschleife promises its own fair share of drama. www.fiawtcc.com

2015 CALENDAR WTCC

Race 1: Argentina (Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo) 6-8 March Race 2: Morocco (Circuit Moulay El Hassan) 17-19 April Race 3: Hungary (Hungaroring) 1-3 May Race 4: Germany (Nürburgring Nordschleife) 15-16 May Race 5: Russia (Moscow) 5-7 June Race 6: Slovakia (Slovakia Ring) 19-21 June Race 7: France (Paul Ricard) 26-28 June Race 8: Portugal (Vila Real) 10-12 July Race 9: Japan 11-13 September Race 10: China (Shanghai) 25-27 September Race 11: Thailand (Buriram) 30 October-1 November Race 12: Qatar (Losail) 20-22 November