Thed Bjork says a ‘podium is on the cards’

Thed Bjork finished qualifying in sixth at Slovakiaring, just outside the Q3 by a blink of an eye. Despite missing out on the final shootout by just six hundredths of a second, the Polestar Cyan Racing driver is not disappointed, focusing instead on the positives of being comfortably in the top ten.

“I am actually happy with sixth, rather than disappointed for missing Q3,” said the Swede to TouringCarTimes. “I’m also happy I was able to perform my lap without traffic or problems, I did it the way I was thinking I should do it, with no mistakes and really on the limit. I was happy with my time and when the team said ‘P6’ by a few hundredths I knew I was close. It’s where I am now, and we need to learn more to be faster. Just give us more time and we will be quicker. But I am happy for the result now.”

When asked about the goals for the races, Bjork will be focused on mileage and will adopt a cautious approach: “My goal should be to have a good start and then continue to drive and see what happens during the race. I am fifth in the opening race and have a little bit slower drivers in front of me, but it’s also hard to overtake. If I am calm and just drive I think I will have the chance to overtake some cars. On the other, I will have to look out for the faster cars behind. I don’t think I will be able to get to the front and pull away, it’s going to be a fight. I need to learn as much as possible, I won’t go for any crazy overtaking, just stay calm and take the opportunities.”

Despite this, the Swede admits he might score a podium: “Of course a podium is on the cards, but it’s not a goal. It could happen, but I might be overtaken at the start and then it would make things harder. I have to find a compromise between the aggression I need to overtake cars and the caution needed to stay on track and not be overtaken. It’s too early to be too aggressive.”

As for the pace of the new S60, Bjork believes it will take just some more weekends to be able to challenge at the front consistently: “We will need some more weekends to win on pace. We are not there yet, we need to find something more in the S60. Maybe we can win races using the reversed grid at some point, but we want to be there on pace. In six racing weekends I will know more.”

The driver watched both Q3 and MAC3 after he was eliminated at the end of the second segment of qualifying, and found it interesting: “Of course we will do MAC3 at some point, but at the moment it’s a bit far away in time. There was not much I could learn by looking at it, to be honest I was more interested in Q3 as a driver. Of course I had a look at MAC3 to understand the speed of the cars, which might help tomorrow. We want to learn about tactics so we are better prepared when we get there.”

Bjork’s team-mate Fredrik Ekblom will start from the back of the grid due to a missed weight check.