Fredrik Ekblom confident ahead of Slovakiaring weekend

Fredrik Ekblom led a Volvo 1-2 in the first free practice session at Slovakiaring. The Swede is still not sure how qualifying will be, but is happy with the progress being made on the Polestar Cyan Racing S60.

“It’s a bit too early (to make predictions for Qualifying), but it’s always nice to have a quick car, which we have”, said the Swede to TouringCarTimes. “It’s good to be first in practice, but I think we have different agendas throughout the pit lane, so you will see different results in qualifying. I am confident, anyway.”

Ambitious objectives mean Volvo are hoping to get at least one car in Q3: “The goal is to do a very good job, learn a lot about the car and hopefully make it to Q3. In a perfect world we would be in Q3 with both cars.”

Ekblom does not think Slovakiaring suits the S60 more than Paul Ricard, and believes that a better understanding of the car is behind the results seen in FP1: “I think it’s pretty much the same, actually. I think the progress we are making is due to a better understanding of the car and the team is working really well. Paul Ricard was also pretty good for our car. As long as we keep making progress I think any track can suit our car, especially if it has long straights and fast corners.”

According to the Swede the engine is already good on power, so Cyan Racing are able to focus on other things: “We are satisfied with our engine, so the biggest challenge is to learn the chassis, the tyres and the championship in general. We are developing the car and the team to make sure we get close to Citroën, who are of course doing a very good job.”

Free Practice 2 is scheduled for 11.30 local time.