Rickard Rydell grabs point in 100th career WTCC race Le Castellet, June 28, 2015 Honda Racing team Sweden driver Rickard Rydell scored a point in the 100th WTCC race of his career in France this weekend. Rydell – a five-time WTCC winner since his 2005 debut – got Sunday’s proceedings underway with 11th place in the first of two races at Circuit Paul Ricard, improving from 17th on the grid to take the chequered flag just two tenths of a second behind Dutchman Jaap van Lagen (LADA). Rydell then celebrated his 100th championship start in the subsequent Race 2, which saw the former British and Swedish Touring Car champion fittingly grab the final point in tenth place. The next round of the 2015 WTCC season takes place at Portugal’s Vila Real street circuit on July 10-12. Néstor Girolami – who scored on his series debut with Honda Racing team Sweden in Slovakia last week – will be back behind the wheel of the team’s Honda Civic TC1 for the Portuguese event. RESULTS WTCC Race of France | Circuit Paul Ricard Race 1: Race 2: 1: Sébastien Loeb (France/Citroën), 16 laps 1: José María López (Argentina/Citroën), 16 laps 11: Rickard Rydell (Sweden/Honda), +31.802s 10: Rickard Rydell (Sweden/Honda), +24.009s CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS After 7/12 rounds 1: José María López (Argentina/Citroën), 282 p. 2: Yvan Muller (France/Citroën), 243 p. 3: Sébastien Loeb (France/Citroën), 208 p. 18: Rickard Rydell (Sweden/Honda), 4 p. 21: Néstor Girolami (Argentina/Honda), 1 p. Rickard Rydell (driver) ”We travelled to France with the aim of challenging for points – which is what we did. Still, we had obviously been hoping for a little more. We didn’t get qualifying right, although I was only a few tenths off the fastest Honda in Q1 and we do appear to have closed in on the factory team. Our long-run pace is a bit stronger, and it was two fun races with some good fights and overtaking. It’s nice to have scored a point in my 100th WTCC race, and I’m flattered that it was highlighted by the organisation here this weekend, but personally I don’t think too much about it. I prefer to look forward!” Nicklas Karlsson (team principal) ”Everyone in this team – Rickard, the mechanics, the engineers; everyone – work with tremendous desire, and it’s just a shame that we can’t get the appropriate payoff for their efforts. As nice as it is to score a point, we have higher ambitions and we want to be more competitive. Having said that, we did find a few new things here this weekend that should make us stronger in the next races in Portugal. For some reason, we seem to be better in the races than in qualifying trim, and that is something we will be analysing. “From an event point of view, this weekend has been absolutely fantastic. The WTCC provides an excellent platform for us and our partners, and we now hope to back that up with some slightly better results over the second half of the season.” 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 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 (Motegi) 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 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 .