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The championship is now facing the winter break. The 2011 season will kick off on March 20th in Brazil with the cars powered by the new 1.6-litre engines.

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HUFF AND MICHELISZ SHARE VICTORIES CHEVROLET TAKES MANUFACTURERS' TITLE

The final races of the season were full of drama as they always are on the streets of Macau.
Overtaking manoeuvres, incidents and red flags provided plenty of excitement in a day that culminated with Chevrolet celebrating a double world and confirmed 26-year old Norbert Michelisz as a top touring car driver at the end of his first professional season. Rob Huff claimed a dominant light-to-flag victory in Race 1, giving Chevrolet the Manufacturers' title and jumping ahead of Gabriele Tarquini to second in the Drivers' Championship. In Race 2 Michelisz imitated Huff, taking the lead from Kristian Poulsen at the first braking point and managing to keep Tarquini at safe distance despite the fact that the race was suspended and restarted. In the six WTCC seasons held so far Michelisz is only the second driver, after Tom Coronel in Japan in 2008,  to claim an overall victory without driving a factory or factory-backed car.  The fight for the second place in the championship ended when Tarquini beat Huff by 0.3secs. They finished the season on equal points, but the Italian prevailed for having won five races against three.
The third man in contention, Andy Priaulx lost his chance when he was caught in a pile up at the start of the first race.  In the Independents' Trophy the hopes of the local fans to see Darryl O'Young to clinch the title vanished when the Hong Kong racer was eliminated by Tom Coronel during the first race. When Kristian Poulsen, who had won Race 1, made a mistake and crashed in the second race, Proteam Motorsport's Sergio Hernandez knew he had won the title. Then he dropped all cautions to chase Franz Engstler and claim his fifth win of the year. The Italian outfit also clinched the Team's Trophy.  

Michelisz takes Maiden FIA World Touring Car Championship Victory

Norbert Michelisz secured a maiden win in the FIA World Touring Car Championship(WTCC) in the final race of the season in Macau on Sunday.
Michelisz, who drives a SEAT, surged past pole position man and independents' champion Kristian Poulsen at the original start before a red flag was put out because of a crash between Andrei Romanov and Nobuteru Taniguchi that blocked the track at Police.
After a safety-car restart, Michelisz was able to keep his advantage and extend a comfortable margin over fellow SEAT driver Gabriele Tarquini, who managed to hold off Rob Huff in a result that secured the Italian second place in the drivers' standings.
With Chevrolet having earlier clinched the manufacturers' crown, the main focus was on whether Huff could overcome Tarquini to secure that runners-up spot.
Having started eighth, Huff got up to sixth early on - and was then gifted a place by Muller on lap three who was well aware of the championship situation.
Huff then overtook Augusto Farfus on lap six to get himself up to third but, despite closing right up on Tarquini by the final lap, he could not find a way to get past. That result meant he ended the season with the same points as Tarquini - but with less wins it is his rival who finishes ahead of him in the standings.
Behind the podium finishers, Muller ended his season with fourth place after a tough battle with Farfus. After minor contact between them several times, Muller eventually got past his BMW rival on the run down to Lisboa on lap nine.
And despite his bumper trailing off the back of his car, Farfus eventually finished fifth ahead of Tom Coronel and a hard-charging Andy Priaulx - who had started at the back of the field following his race one accident.


Huff Wins FIA World Touring Car Championship Race One

Rob Huff boosted his chances of finishing runner-up in the FIA WTCC with a dominant victory in the first of the day's two races at Macau on Sunday.
The Chevrolet driver made a perfect getaway from pole position at the rolling start to keep the lead, but the safety car was called out almost immediately following a multi-car collision involving Andy Priaulx, Andre Couto and Michel Nykjaer at the first corner.
The field was held behind the safety car until the start of lap five, when Huff got away cleanly once again to build up a lead over team-mate Yvan Muller that he would keep until the end of the race.
Huff was two seconds clear at the start of lap 10 when the safety-car was called out again after Henry Ho Wai Kun crashed in the mountain section and his car was left in a dangerous place on the track.
SEAT's Tiago Monteiro shadowed runner-up Muller all through the race but could do nothing to overhaul the Chevrolet driver, while behind them there was a big battle for fourth place.
It was Gabriele Tarquini who eventually came out on top, after overtaking the struggling Augusto Farfus on the run down to Mandarin on lap eight. Farfus then lost another place to Norbert Michelisz the following lap to eventually finish sixth.
Alain Menu recovered from an opening lap error at Lisboa, where he nudged the barrier, to finish seventh, ahead of Kristian Poulsen - whose eighth place means he will start the second race from pole position.
Tom Coronel lost his chance of a top ten finish when he was handed a drive- through penalty for tapping the back of Darryl O'Young under braking for Lisboa at the first restart - pushing the local driver into a spin before he crashed into Fredy Barth.  

MULLER GETS CLOSER TO THE WORLD TITLE AS HUFF AND FARFUS SHARE VICTORIES

For the third consecutive year Japanese Gods sent the rain to soak the WTCC races at Okayama. In spite of this, local fans did not miss the last appearance of the World Championship before it moves to Suzuka from next year and a crowd of 31,000 attended over the weekend.

After a Saturday that was clearly in favour of BMW, the rainy Sunday smiled to Yvan Muller. In extremely difficult conditions the Chevrolet driver kept a cool head and collected two third places that are worth their weight in gold. Especially as his two rivals in the title fight. committed hara-kiri.

After a brilliant second place in the first race, Andy Priaulx spun off and retired in the early stages of Race 2. A few laps later Gabriele Tarquini lost control and crashed from the lead.

The Italian, reigning world champion, has been cut out of the fight, while Priaulx now has a 37-point gap with 50 still to be awarded. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet is only 14 points shy from securing the title.

Rob Huff and Augusto Farfus shared victories today. The Briton pushed beyond the limits in the first race to get past the BMW cars of Farfus and Priaulx, while the Brazilian managed to stay on the track in the final laps of the second race after forcing Tarquini to make the fatal mistake.

The championship will resume for the season finale (rounds 21 and 22) at Macau, on November 21 where the Rookie Challenge and the Independents' Trophy will also elect their champions.

BMW’s clean sweep in WTCC qualifying 

BMW Team RBM locked out the front row of the grid for Sunday’s Race 1 at Okayama. Andy Priaulx claimed his first pole position since Macau 2006 with the quickest lap of the weekend so far, a 1:36.972 that is also a new track record for S2000 cars. His team-mate Augusto Farfus (1:37.408) will start alongside him ahead of Chevrolet's Rob Huff (1:37.441).

Norbert Michelisz (1:37.577) emerged as the best rookie in fifth position overall, while Franz Engstler (1:38.605) will start in tenth, best of the independents after also making it through into Q2.

Q1 - Michelisz initially posted the fastest time, but the BMWs quickly took the advantage with Farfus and Priaulx jumping on top of the timesheets. With seven minutes to go, French newcomer Michael Rossi improved to seventh and secured his place in Q2.

The BMW 320si cars looked strong with Colin Turkington recording a great lap in the final minutes to go fastest of anyone at that point in all three sectors and jump ahead of the Farfus-Priaulx pair with a time of 1:37.264.

With no improvements as the flag came out, the top ten going forward into Q2 remained Turkington, Farfus, Priaulx, Huff, Michelisz, Tarquini, Muller, Engstler, Menu and Rossi who managed to reach Q2 on his first appearance in the championship.

Q2 - With the help of a slipstream from his teammate, Andy Priaulx secured his first pole position of the season on his only flying lap in Q2. A best time of 1:36.972 gave him pole from Farfus by 0.436s and the team decided not to risk an extra flying lap on the tyres to hopefully give the pair an advantage in the race tomorrow.

Huff posted the third quickest time (1:37.441) from Turkington (1:37.495), and Michelisz (1:37.577), who was the quickest SEAT driver of the day as well as being the top rookie in fifth.

Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini's (1:37.727) best time was good enough for sixth ahead of Chevrolet's Menu (1:37.844) and Muller (1:37.913). Rossi (1:38.387) was the only driver to improve on his second flying lap to move up to ninth ahead of Engstler.

SEQUENTIAL GEARBOX FOR PRIAULX AND FARFUS

Four BMW cars - Andy Priaulx's, Augusto Farfus', Franz Engstler's and Andrei Romanov's - are equipped with an Xtrac 6-speed sequential gearbox.

Although Romanov already used it in the previous three events, this is the first time ever since the Super 2000 regulations were adopted back in 2002 that BMW factory cars run with a sequential gearbox instead of the usual 5-speed H-pattern.

This change, along with the compensation weight system, enabled them to benefit from a significant weight reduction: 1168 kg compared to the 1198 kilos fixed by the sporting regulations and the application of the compensation weight.

Four other BMW cars - Kristian Poulsen's, Colin Turkington's, Yoshihiro Ito's and Henry Ho's - were accepted as "old" models and given a weight of 1123 kilos.

The Chevrolet team announced their intention to appeal against the decisions 1 and 2 taken by the Panel of the Stewards that authorize the two BMW Team RBM cars to run with the 6-speed sequential gearbox.

ROUNDS 17 & 18 - VALENCIA

DOUBLE VICTORY FOR SEAT ON HOME SOIL 

QUALIFYING REPORT 

TARQUINI CLAIMS THIRD POLE POSITION

Gabriele Tarquini (1:44.111) claimed his third pole position of the season at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo today ahead of Chevrolet championship rivals, Rob Huff (1:44.193) and Yvan Muller (1:44.258). Andy Priaulx - currently second in the Drivers' Championship - qualified tenth.
Kristian Poulsen was the fastest independent in 13^th ahead of Spanish newcomer Marc Carol (14^th). Fredy Barth (1:45.070) topped the rookies in eighth.

Q1 - It was the Swiss drivers on top in Q1 as Fredy Barth recorded best times in the first two sectors and a personal best in S3 to record a 1:44.604, putting him on top at the end of the first part of the session. His countryman Alain Menu was second fastest in his Chevrolet Cruze.
Franz Engstler caused yellow flags at Turn 5, after ending in the gravel and having to be towed away ending his session early. Norbert Michelisz spun out at Turn 3 while in ninth and as he was then unable to improve his time, was slowly pushed down the order by the end of the session to finish 13^th overall.
Andy Priaulx improved his time to haul his BMW 320si into the top ten while Pouslen briefly knocked Tom Coronel out. Coronel and Tiago Monteiro improved again to make the final ten going through to Q2: Barth, Menu, Tarquini, Coronel, Augusto Farfus, Tiago Monteiro, Jordi Gené, Yvan Muller, Rob Huff and Andy Priaulx. The latter made it through beating Michel Nykjær by just 26-hundreths of a second in what was a closely fought session with less than a second covering the top 11 drivers.

Q2 - In the final ten minute shootout the frontrunners all struggled to put in clean laps with no mistakes. The BMW Team RBM cars left it late to set their times but did not manage to squeeze among the first positions and remained at the bottom of the timesheet.
Gabriele Tarquini's first run, 1:44.111, was good enough to put his SEAT León TDI on pole position for the Spanish manufacturer on home soil. Huff and Muller both improved in the final seconds to finish second and third respectively, after struggling in Q1. Menu (1:44.439) was fourth joining his Chevrolet teammates at the front, however gearbox problems deprived him of a second attempt to improve.
Monteiro finished fifth ahead of Coronel, Jordi Gené and Fredy Barth who could not repeat his earlier success after having no fresh tyres for Q2.

ROUNDS 15 & 16 - OSCHERSLEBEN

RACE REPORT

MENU AND PRIAULX SHARES VICTORIES

Alain Menu and Andy Priaulx won one race apiece in Oschersleben today. The Swiss driver gave Chevrolet their first victory on the German track, while the Briton scored his sixth win of the season and moved further ahead in the Drivers' Championship. In the two latest meetings, Priaulx has recovered 38 points from the leader Yvan Muller, reducing his gap to 11, and now he has also jumped ahead of Gabriele Tarquini (who has scored only 2 points in the three latest races) in second position.
The first race was a Chevrolet show. Rob Huff and Menu took control from the beginning, but the former was later black-flagged for hitting the poleman Augusto Farfus at the start. This enabled Menu to claim his first victory of the year from Farfus and Muller.
In Race 2, Priaulx dashed ahead of the SEAT pair of Michelisz and Nykjær and kissed goodbye to the rest of the field on his way to a solo flight. Farfus and Muller finished far behind him in second and third after Monteiro was given a drive-through for hitting both Nykjær and Michelisz.
There was a Danish domination in both the Rookie Challenge and the Independents' Trophy, with Nykjær and Kristian Poulsen twice victorious in the respective categories. In the second race they were also able to obtain their best results so far in the overall classification: Nykjær fourth and Poulsen sixth.
Chevrolet still keeps a solid 55-point lead in the Manufacturers' Championship ahead of BMW, while SEAT Customers Technology is only six further points adrift.
The championship will resume for rounds 17 and 18 at Valencia, Spain on September 19.

MASS PENALTY FAVOURS PRIAULX
15 drivers were awarded 30-second time penalties for exceeding the maximum speed of 90 kmh allowed during the rolling start of the first race.
They were: Coronel, Nykjær, Michelisz, Poulsen, Hernández, Barth, Gené, Engstler, Bennani, D'Aste, Romanov and Taniguchi. However, the only change in the race results concerns Coronel (who slips from fourth to sixth) and the pair Monteiro-Priaulx who gain one position moving up to fourth and fifth respectively.
In terms of Championship points, this reduced the gap between Muller and Priaulx from 13 to 11.

QUALIFYING REPORT 

FARFUS TAKES POLE AS RAIN DISTRUPTS QUALIFYING 

Augusto Farfus (1:38.070) claimed his second pole position of the season at Oschersleben today, the day after the Brazilian celebrated his 27th birthday.
As the rain began to fall in Q2 Farfus put in two clean laps to take pole ahead of Chevrolet's Rob Huff (1:38.176) and his BMW Team RBM teammate Andy Priaulx (1:38.186).
Norbert Michelisz (1:38.634) was the best rookie in fifth, but will start 15th after a 10-position grid penalty imposed following the previous event in Brno.
Stefano D'Aste (1:36.881) was the fastest Independent in 13th ahead of Sergio Hernández (1:37.282) and Franz Engstler (1:37.309) who finished 14th and 15th respectively.

Q1 - On a dry track, the drivers were all pushing hard during the first part of qualifying with Fabio Fabiani spinning through the gravel at the Hotel-Kurve, Stefano D'Aste losing the back end of his car out of the Bauer-Kurve and spinning across the track, and Tiago Monteiro bringing out the red flag after hitting the tyres at the Hoyer-Schikane.
When the session resumed for the final three minutes, Norbert Michelisz was the big winner moving up to fifth overall and knocking fellow rookie Michel Nykjær out of the top ten. Fredy Barth was pushing for a top ten slot when he spun into the gravel at turn six.
Rob Huff was quickest of the session, his 1:35.518 breaking the lap record he set in 2008 by 0.16-seconds.
Huff, Gabriele Tarquini, Jordi Gené, Yvan Muller, Michelisz, Alain Menu, Farfus, Priaulx, Tom Coronel and Monteiro were the drivers going forward to Q2, but with Monteiro parked out on track only the first nine competed in the final ten minutes.

Q2 - With the rain starting to fall, the pressure was on in the second part of qualifying and Augusto Farfus ended on top due to putting in a couple of quick clean laps at the start to end 0.106 seconds ahead of Huff.
Farfus was quickest after the first flying laps and remained on top as the action began behind. Muller ran wide at the chicane and Michelisz went off at the Mibau Kurve. As the rain began to fall harder Huff ran wide and collected his teammate Menu as he rejoined with the pair then both spinning out. Tarquini also hit the barrier at turn five as the red flag came out.
Despite running off Huff will start second ahead of Priaulx with Chevrolet's Menu in fourth. Tarquini (1:38.796) will start fifth ahead of Tom Coronel (1:38.810), Yvan Muller (1:38.869) and Gené (1:39.994) who made a mistake on his first flying lap.

ROUNDS 13 & 14 - BRNO
RACE REPORT

PRIAULX AND HUFF CLOSE IN ON THE LEADERS 

British drivers won all today in Brno as Rob Huff took his first victory of the season for Chevrolet in Race 1 and Andy Priaulx scored BMW's 50th WTCC win in Race 2.
These results, joint with the bad luck that hit Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini, meant a big leap forward in the championship classification for both, Priaulx and Huff
In Race 1, Huff claimed a lights-to-flag victory despite a short safety car period interrupting proceedings. He crossed the line ahead of reigning world champion Gabriele Tarquini and his teammate Alain Menu.
In Race 2, BMW Team RBM's Priaulx came from fourth on the grid to take an extra special victory at the place where he scored his first win for BMW back in 2003. Colin Turkington finished second after holding off the charge from Menu, who obtained his second podium finish of the day.
Yvan Muller did not score this weekend and remained on 199 points with Tarquini (who retired in the second race) now just 5 points adrift on 194. Priaulx lies third, only 16 points behind the leader, whil Huff is fourth and reduced his gap to 32.
Darryl O'Young, the young rookie from Hong Kong, dominated the Independents' category taking two wins. He has now closed the gap in the standings to Sergio Hernández who still leads. O'Young and Michel Nykjær shared victories in the Rookie Challenge that is now led by Fredy Barth.

PENALTIES FOR THREE DRIVERS
The Stewards investigated three different incidents: two in Race 1 and one in Race 2.
Darryl O'Young was judged guilty of pushing Tiago Monteiro into a spin during the first race. He received a 30-second time penalty that dropped him from 8th to 17th and handed the Independents' victory to Kristian Poulsen.
The same penalty was imposed to Mehdi Bennani for a collision with Poulsen in Race 2. The Moroccan racer was therefore demoted from 15th to 16th.
Both O'Young and Bennani were also given a drop of 10-grid positions that will remain suspended for two and one events (respectively).
A drop of grid position was also awarded to Norbert Michelisz for the collision with Colin Turkington after the restart of the first race. In this case the penalty will be applied at the next race in Oschersleben.

QUALIFYING REPORT

HUFF SECURES HIS FIRST POLE OF THE SEASON 

Britain's Rob Huff (2:10.860) scored his first pole position since Macau last year making no mistakes on his final lap to finish 0.338s ahead of reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini (2:11.198) at Brno. Colin Turkington will start as best of the independents in third overall for Race 1 in Brno, while Norbert Michelisz (2:11.436) topped the rookies in sixth overall.

Q1 - Rob Huff led the times as the WTCC cars were making steady progress during the first qualifying session until Fabio Fabiani continued his bad day ending beached in the gravel at T5 for the second time this weekend.

The red flag came out as his car was moved out of danger while Gabriele Tarquini, Jordi Gené and Tom Coronel were yet to set a fast lap. With 10-minutes remaining the session restarted and the field headed back on track. Huff remained at the top with Tarquini, Menu, Muller, Gené, Farfus, Turkington, Coronel, Michelisz and Nykjær going through into Q2.
Andy Priaulx (2:11.761) missed the cut by 0.011s from the Danish rookie with Tiago Monteiro (2:11.994) also struggling and qualifying in 14th.

Q2 - The drivers left it late in the 10-minute session but it only took one flying lap for Britain's Rob Huff to secure his first pole position of the season ahead of reigning champion, Tarquini. Turkington was the fastest BMW driver for the second time this season finishing in third overall, just 0.007s adrift of the Italian.
With the whole field only recording one quick lap each it was Augusto Farfus (2:11.260) to claim fourth position with Alain Menu (2:11.360) in fifth.

Michelisz and Nykjær were left to fight it out in the Rookie Challenge during Q2 with Michelisz coming out to qualify sixth and Nykjær (2:11.826) tenth.  Tom Coronel (2:11.528) fast lap was good enough for seventh ahead of championship leader Yvan Muller (2:11.542) and Gené (2:11.745).

ROUNDS 11 & 12 - BRANDS HATCH

ONE APIECE FOR MULLER AND PRIAULX

Yvan Muller and Andy Priaulx claimed one victory apiece at Brands Hatch in two extremely close races that also launched Colin Turkington as the rising star in the WTCC heaven.

In Race 1 Muller and Rob Huff gave Chevrolet a 1-2 finish ahead of Turkington who managed to steal third place from Alain Menu's third Cruze, while Gabriele Tarquini scored important points finishing fourth and Priaulx obtained an eighth place that eventually proved crucial for the rest of the day.

Priaulx and Turkington scored BMW's second one-two at Brands. In the 12th round of the season, Priaulx crossed the line after 16 laps 0.399 seconds ahead of BMW privateer Turkington of Team ebay Motors, claiming his fourth victory of the season. It was the triple world champion's 16th career win in WTCC. His fellow BMW Team RBM driver, Augusto Farfus (BR), dropped back to 13th following a collision with Chevrolet's Alain Menu (CH), but managed to improve back to eighth over the course of the race. Behind Priaulx Turkington claimed a brilliant second place from Tarquini, with Muller in fifth.

After a difficult beginning to his home weekend, Priaulx jumped from zero to hero, recovering from a 10 position grid penalty that had demoted him to 16th at the start of Race 1 to the highest step of the podium.

The championship fight is also very close. Muller leads with 199 points and has a margin of 23 over Tarquini, while Priaulx is a further 30 points behind. And Huff cannot be discounted, lying 69 points behind the leader.

Thanks to the 33 points he scored in the overall championship and the additional points for the category's pole position and fastest laps, Turkingon made a giant leap forward in the Independents' Trophy. After only four races, the Ulsterman is second, 11 points behind Sergio Hernández.

Norbert Michelisz won both races in the Rookie Challenge and ousted Fredy Barth from the lead.

QUALIFYING REPORT

CHEVROLET'S CLEAN SWEEP IN QUALIFYING

Current championship leader Yvan Muller (1:32.481) claimed his second pole of the year to lead a Chevrolet top three in qualifying today. Muller topped the Q2 session 0.197s ahead of teammates Rob Huff (1:32.678) and Alain Menu (1:32.828).
Colin Turkington (1:32.842) will start tomorrow's Race 1 in an impressive fourth overall as best of the independents. Norbert Michelisz (1:33.261) qualified first of the rookies in ninth.

Q1 - Qualifying got underway with all but Tim Coronel's BMW 320si that sat in the garage while his team worked on the car's dampers.
Stefano D'Aste had a spin at Clark forcing Colin Turkington to run off in avoidance. Despite having his first run blighted, the Ulsterman posted the seventh quickest time of Q1 to progress into final qualifying.
Tom Coronel made it into the final shootout in eleventh, despite pushing so hard he ran wide at Clark curve on his final run, as the number of cars in Q2 was extended by the Stewards.
Huff lead for the majority of the session but was demoted by teammate Muller in the final minutes.
Muller, Huff, Menu, Gabriele Tarquini, Andy Priaulx, Tiago Monteiro, Turkington, Michelisz, Augusto Farfus, Franz Engstler and Tom Coronel were the drivers going forward into Q2.
Robert Dahlgren's Volvo failed to advance to Q2, as the Swedish driver posted the 12th best lap, while Brazilian star "Cacá" Bueno qualified 17th in his Chevrolet.

Q2 - Muller had a big sideways moment at the start of the final shootout running wide at Paddock Hill and compromising his first flying lap. He recovered to record the fastest time of the session with his teammates joining him up the front as the chequered flag came out.
Britain's Rob Huff's last lap was good enough to secure a front row start for his home race.
Reigning champion Tarquini (1:32.873) qualified fifth ahead of Guernseyman Andy Priaulx (1:32.973). After making it through to final qualifying, Tom Coronel (1:33.176) improved his time and posted the seventh fastest lap. Monteiro (1:33.257) was eighth ahead of Michelisz in his SEAT León TDI. Farfus (1:33.337) posted the tenth quickest time ahead of Franz Engstler (1:35.164) in eleventh overall and second of the independents 

ROUNDS 9 & 10 - PORTIMÃO

MONTEIRO AND TARQUINI MAKE TWO SEAT WINS

Local hero Tiago Monteiro and reigning world champion Gabriele Tarquini scored one victory apiece in Portugal, making it a perfect weekend for SEAT Customers Technology.

In Race 1, cheered by his home crowd, Monteiro ended the monopoly of the three WTCC champions - Tarquini, Muller and Priaulx - who had claimed all the race wins from the beginning of the season. The Portuguese racer came back on the WTCC winning podium two years after another home victory at Estoril, resisting a final charge from Yvan Muller and Tarquini.

In Race 2, Tarquini put in a dominant performance, annihilating the rest of the field to achieve his fourth victory of the season. Muller and Rob Huff completed the podium after a breathtaking battle with Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus, Tom Coronel and Alain Menu.

Thanks to a couple of second places, Yvan Muller maintained his leadership in the Drivers' Championship. With Priaulx and Huff non-scorers in the first race, the Frenchman and Tarquini stretched the gap at the front.

Norbert Michelisz and Fredy Barth shared victories in the Rookie Challenge, while the Independents' Trophy saw successes for Sergio Hernández and Darryl O'Young.

The championship will resume for rounds 11 and 12 at Brands Hatch, UK, on July 18th.

LAST UPDATE - HUFF STRIPPED OF RACE 2 PODIUM

Chevrolet's Rob Huff was stripped of his third place in the second race following a Stewards decision.

The Briton was under investigation for two different incidents with Augusto Farfus, one in each of today's races.

After hearing the competitors and watching videos, the Panel of the Stewards decided to impose Huff a reprimand for the first incident and a 30-second time penalty for the second one. The decision meant that Huff slipped from third to 22nd in Portimão's Race 2, while his teammate Alain Menu inherited third position.

QUALIFYING REPORT 

MONTEIRO GRABS POLE FOR HOME EVENT

Tiago Monteiro claimed his first WTCC pole position since 2007 for his home event at the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve, today. The Portuguese driver recorded a quickest time of 1:55.372 despite an earlier collision with Andy Priaulx's BMW and will start alongside Chevrolet's Yvan Muller (1:55.425) on the front row for tomorrow's Race 1 ahead of BMW's Augusto Farfus (1:55.675).
Colin Turkington (1:56.698) ended the session tenth and top of the independents with Norbert Michelisz (1:55.991) in sixth as the best rookie.

Q1 - The drama started early on with local racer Monteiro colliding with Priaulx at T12 resulting in them both having to return to the pits before recording a flying lap. Priaulx was straight back out while the SR-Sport team did some fast work to repair the damage to rear right of Monteiro's SEAT León TDI, getting him out with half the 20-minute session still remaining.
Gabriele Tarquini was provisionally quickest with a time of 1:56.097 as the final seconds saw a jostle for position. Priaulx improved to fourth to secure his place in Q2 as Muller, on the cusp of being knocked out, also improved to second in his Chevrolet Cruze. Michel Nykjær briefly moved into the top ten before being quickly demoted by Alain Menu on his final run.
Monteiro's last lap moved him to the top of the timesheets on home soil ahead of the final shootout.
The top ten going through to Q2 were Monteiro, Tarquini, Muller, Huff, Farfus, Priaulx, Menu, Gené, Michelisz and Turkington.
The result confirmed reigning British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington as the best independent on his WTCC debut.

Q2 - In the final 10-minute session all the drivers left it late with only four minutes remaining as they recorded their first lap times.
Monteiro was flying, setting a fastest time of 1:55.372, which was not bettered in the final moments. Chevrolet's Muller was just 0.053 seconds adrift in second place.
Rob Huff (1:55.934) was the only driver to make any real improvement on his time to jump up to fifth just behind reigning champion Tarquini (1:55.709) in fourth. As the final seconds ticked down the order was confirmed: Monteiro first, from Muller, Farfus, Tarquini, Huff, Michelisz, Gené, Priaulx, Menu and Turkington.

Rounds 7 & 8 - Zolder

BELGIAN VICTORIES FOR SEAT AND BMW

SEAT and BMW shared victories in Zolder, on the first ever visit of the FIA WTCC to Belgium that was blessed by a crowd of 23,000 despite a cold wind from the North.
Jordi Gené came home first in Race 1, but it was his team-mate Gabriele Tarquini who inherited victory after the Spaniard's car failed to pass the technical checks because the air restrictor did not conform.
Chevrolet's duo of Yvan Muller and Alain Menu completed the podium.
The second race saw one of Andy Priaulx's famous solo escapes from the pole position on the reverse grid. The Briton rejected the assaults from Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro and claimed a much-longed home victory for Bart Mampaey and his BMW Team RBM.
Thanks to the solid performances posted by their three top drivers, Chevrolet collected a great deal of points that enabled Muller to maintain his leadership in the Drivers' Championship (but Tarquini and Priaulx closed the gap) and the American brand to stay on top of the Manufacturers.
Norbert Michelisz achieved two wins in the Rookie Challenge - and also 12 further points in the overall championship. These results meant that the Hungarian youngster is now one point ahead of Fredy Barth in the Challenge.
Kristian Poulsen claimed his first victory in the Independents' Trophy, while point-leader Sergio Hernández won the second race.
 

Tarquini on Pole

Gabriele Tarquini (1:38.265) claimed his second pole of the season for SR-Sport in Zolder after rain brought an early end to proceedings. Teammate Jordi Gené (1:38.430) will line up alongside him on the grid for Race 1 while Chevrolet's Alain Menu (1:38.494) will start third.
Norbert Michelisz (1:39.072) finished top rookie in sixth for the Zengö-Dension Team while local racer Pierre-Yves Corthals (1:39.610) was top Independent in 13th on his season debut for Exagon Engineering.
After a closely fought Q1 with the top ten covered by less than 0.4-seconds, the drivers only had chance for one flying lap in Q2 before the heavens opened making it impossible for anyone to improve.

Q1 - On a dry track Andy Priaulx was quickest out the box with his first time of 1:39.349 already much faster than any time this weekend so far. As the times continued to drop, the final minutes saw a jostle for positions with Michelisz improving on his final run to knock SR-Sport's Tom Coronel out of the top ten.
Darryl O'Young was in the top ten for the majority of Q1 following his promising start to the weekend. However, as the top drivers improved further he ended 14th with a time of 1:39.824. Belgium's Vincent Radermecker (1:40.003) will start 16th for Chevrolet.
The top ten going forward into Q2 were Menu, Monteiro, Tarquini, Priaulx, Muller, Gené, Michelisz, Farfus, Barth and Huff.
Corthals clocked the 13th fastest lap, emerging as the best of the Independents ahead of O'Young and Kristian Poulsen.

Q2 - The 10-minute Q2 session was over quickly as after eight of the top ten had only recorded their first flying laps the rain began to fall. All but the BMW Team RBM cars had set a fast time before the rain fell with Farfus and Priaulx's decision to wait costing them dearly.
The final order after one flying lap was therefore Tarquini from Gené, Menu, Muller, Michelisz, Barth, Monteiro, Priualx and Farfus. With the track now wet Tarquini's second pole position of the season, following his first at Marrakech last month, was secured

ROUNDS 5 & 6 - MONZA
RACE REPORT 

MULLER AND CHEVROLET JUMP INTO THE LEAD

Monza was benevolent with Chevrolet that made the most out of today's races on the Italian superfast racetrack. The blue-and-white cars collected one victory (with Yvan Muller in the second race), two third places (with Rob Huff) and a number of points that propelled the Frenchman into the lead of the Drivers' Championship and the American brand to the top of the Manufacturers'.
As usual the WTCC races in Monza were extremely exciting and were both decided on the last laps, when a combination of speed and hot asphalt took its toll on the leading drivers with of front-left tyres exploding.
Gabriele Tarquini and Huff were fighting for victory in the first race when they both dropped down presenting an unexpected 1-2 finish to BMW drivers Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus.
The same fate hit Michel Nykjær on the last lap of Race 2 after he had created a gap. As the Dane stopped, Muller inherited his second win of the season and jumped on top of the standings with a 24-point margin ahead of Tarquini and Huff.
Chevrolet leads the Manufacturers, closely followed by SEAT Customers Technology and BMW.
Mehdi Bennani missed a great opportunity to take the lead in the Independents' Trophy. The young North African was stripped of his Race 1 victory for straight-cutting a chicane, and in the second race he received a drive through for a clear jump start. His problems, combined with Franz Engstler's engine failure, enabled Sergio Hernández to climb on top ahead of his team mate Stefano D'Aste.
Fredy Barth scored another victory (his fourth so far) in the Rookie Challenge, while Norbert Michelisz claimed his maiden win in the second race.
 

ROUNDS 3 & 4 - MARRAKECH

TARQUINI AND PRIAULX SHARE VICTORIES

Gabriele Tarquini and Andy Priaulx shared victories today in Marrakech, coming home safe after two races that were spoiled by a number of crashes and safety car periods.
In the first race the reigning world champion and his SEAT León TDI car took the lead at the start and benefitted from the fight for second to build a small gap that proved crucial the moment that the race was frozen by the safety car for good.
In race 2 Priaulx made the most out of his pole position on the reverse grid to take command. Two different crashes on laps 1 and 7 chaged the race into a procession behind the safety car until the very last lap in which Priaulx sprinted to BMW's first victory of the season beating Chevrolet's Yvan Muller by a small margin.
It was a sweet and sour weekend for Chevrolet as they obtained two second places with Rob Huff and Muller, but saw Alain Menu and Huff both eliminated in massive crashes in Race 2. This also meant that SEAT Customers Technology took the lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, while Tarquini's win and sixth position propelled him on top of the Drivers' Championship with 70 points from Muller (63) and Huff (46).
BMW drivers also won the two Independents' races. Franz Engstler and local hero Mehdi Bennani encored their successes from last year with the only difference that they swapped Race 1 and 2.
Fredy Barth dominated both races in the Rookie Challenge. Not only was the Swiss driver able to score twice in the overall championship, but he also set the fastest lap in Race 1.
 

QUALIFYING 

REIGNING WORLD CHAMPION CLAIMS POLE POSITION

                                                                       
Gabriele Tarquini claimed his eleventh WTCC pole position - the first of the season for him - taking the top spot for SR-Sport on the streets of Marrakech with a 1:45.830 that improved the existing lap record by nealy four seconds. The Italian dominated proceedings in Morocco, topping both practice sessions and taking pole by over half a second from the rest of the field. 
Following a qualfying session filled with action and red flags, Chevrolet's Rob Huff (1:46.364) will start alongside him on the front row with SR-Sport team mate Jordi Gené (1:46.375) in third.
Franz Engstler (1:48.027) was the quickest Independent in ninth while Michel Nykjær (1:46.375) was the top rookie in sixth after the final red flag of the day. Rookie Challenge racer, Michelisz was quickest in Q1 but crashed out and was unable to start Q2.

Q1 - In an extended 30-minute Q1, given when racing on street circuits, the cars took to the track with Chevrolet's Huff quickly getting on the pace.
Gené was quick to respond in his SEAT León TDI before Yvan Muller posted his quickest time of the session to move ahead.
Muller led as the red flag came out when his Chevrolet team mate Alain Menu crashed into the wall exiting Turn 14. Menu was on a quick lap, having just set the fastest sector 2 time so far, when he spun across the circuit hitting the barrier. Michelisz narrowly avoided hitting the Chevrolet Cruze while also on a quick lap on new tyres.
When the session restarted, Tarquini jumped into P1 before posting a quicker time of 1:46.748 to remain at the top of the timesheets. As the clock ticked down he was demoted by Michelisz, who recorded a 1:46.437 on new tyres. After posting the quickest time of the session however, the Hungarian youngster then crashed into the wall at Turn 3 bringing out the red flag again and ending the session early.
The BMW Team RBM cars of Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx were both caught out by the action as they dropped out of the top ten just before the session was red flagged. While Tom Coronel's final run allowed him to move up to eighth and advance into Q2. 
After crashing out early, Menu will start 13th for Race 1 tomorrow while Mehdi Bennani will start 16th on the grid. The Moroccan crowds were also in good voice, cheering loudly from the stands for both Bennani and fellow Moroccan racer Ismaïl Sbaï.

Q2- After less than 5-minutes the session was halted by another red flag, this time due to oil on the track at Turn 2 left by Franz Engstler's BMW after hitting the wall.
When the green flag came out Tarquini was quick to get on the pace, moving up to P1 with a time of 1:46.830. Gené also put in a good lap to jump from fourth to second. As the cars slipstreamed through the streets, Huff put a great lap together to move from sixth to second with only a few minutes remaining.
The session was then stopped once more as Michel Nykjær crashed his SEAT León TDI into the wall through the chicane at Turn 10. The session did not restart meaning Tarquini had another comfortable lead, this time 0.534s, ahead of Huff and Gené.
Tiago Monteiro finished fourth with a best time of 1:46.696 ahead of Muller. Coronel (1:47.044) will line up seventh in his SEAT León TDI.
It was an impressive showing from the rookies with three, Michelisz, Fredy Barth and Nykjær making it into the top ten for Sunday’s Race of Morocco. Despite crashing out, Nykjær (1:46.751) will start sixth while Barth's time of 1:48.027 was good enough for eighth. With the Zengö-Dension Team unable to repair the earlier damage, Michelisz will start from P10 despite being fastest in Q1.
Franz Engstler (1:48.994) was the best of the Independents and will start ninth. After clipping the wall early in Q2 he pitted with damage and did not restart after the first red flag.

ROUNDS 1 & 2 - CURITIBA
RACE REPORT 

MULLER AND TARQUINI ON TOP AGAIN 

History repeated in Brazil with Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini taking a victory apiece for the second year in succession in Curitiba and leaving Brazil as joint leaders of the Drivers Championship, the only difference being the teams they are competing for.
The Chevrolet team commanded Race 1 with all three of their drivers filling the podium. The good points haul means the USA brand comes away from Curitiba leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 70 points.
All eyes were on the newly formed SEAT customer team, SR-Sport, to see what they had to offer. Race 1 provided a best result of fourth with Tarquini, but the defending champion came fighting back in Race 2 to take victory ahead of team mate Jordi Gené and making it a satisfactory end to the weekend for the team.
BMW Team RBM struggled on race day after the weather went against them despite being the pace setters for most of the weekend. Local boy Augusto Farfus had to settle for two sixth places, while Andy Priaulx was forced out of the second race after a clash with his team-mate.
The newcomers were impressive. Norbert Michelisz and Michel Nykjær showed they can chase the most experienced drivers, Fredy Barth opened the roll of honour of the new Rookie Challenge, while Darryl O'Young fought for the Independents' victory in Race 1 with Stefano D'Aste and Sergio Hernández.