YES.
So those spy shots at the 'ring that everyone thought was the R were actually this. I like it a lot.
Not necessarily. The white, mildly camouflaged mk8 at the Nurburgring had the trademark blue R brake calipers, quad exhaust tips and horizontal slats in the lower front grille.
Also, the front lower grille for the higher performance GTI was always thought to be similar to the R’s with the two body coloured ‘tusks’ in the lower outer sections of the grille. There’s a screen shot from VW TV somewhere on the forum that shows performance figures of the various performance models in the mk8 Golf range, and both the R and higher performance GTI images have the same design of lower grille.
So don’t be surprised when VW reveal the official launch shots of the mk8 R if the ‘face’ looks very similar to the GTI Clubsport, albeit probably with horizontal slats in the lower grille rather than the GTI’s honeycomb design.
Edit; here’s the screen shot referred to above showing the front lower grille design of the R and the Clubsport (previously named TCR) models;