Lack of wet weather testing hampers Volvo in the first session in France

The Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60s of Fredrik Ekblom and Thed Björk finished the first 30-minute test session mired down in 14th and 15th, and Ekblom has put down the surprised drop in performance compared to the Vallelunga pre-season test due to the tricky conditions at Paul Ricard.

With rain falling throughout the session, the Polestar Volvos struggled to keep pace with the other four manufacturers on the grid with Citroën topping the time sheets with the best placed Honda in third, the top Chevrolet in sixth and Lada in seventh.

“It was very difficult for us,” said Ekblom after the session. “We don’t have a lot of experience in the wet. We’ve done a lot of testing, but not in the wet…the track is (also) new to us, so it was difficult.

“If it was dry, we’d be a lot quicker. We have a lot more knowledge about the set-up in the dry for sure.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, where rain is scheduled to continue to fall, the Polestar Cyan Racing driver said they will have work to do to reduce the gap.

“If it’s raining we need to work on the traction, as I was behind (the Citroëns) and they have really good traction. We have to work a little bit in all areas, we have to learn, but so far, so good.”