The pinnacle of touring car sprint race categories, the FIA World Touring Car Championship, reached its final stage, after touring around the world. The hotly fought driver's title was to be decided in this last round of the championship here in Macau. The races were included in the Macau Grand Prix weekend, as they have traditionally been since the foundation of the championship.

When the drivers had headed to the Macau round, the championship leader was Robert Huff who had scored a win and a second place in the Shanghai round. But whether he would remain in the position after the challenging street track races in the ex-Portuguese colony was less certain because, with effectively no escape zone, the track wasn't forgiving for even a small driving mistake and chances were high for everyone on the track to be involved in a multi car pileup.

While the fastest driver in the test session on Thursday was Tiago Monteiro in the sole Honda Civic, Huff was also in good form and stayed on the top of the time sheets for the following two free practice sessions. However, another drivers' champion candidate, Alain Menu who was in second in the point standings, was eager to prey on his teammate and to reverse the championship point situation. Having a good track record in the street circuits, the Swiss was the third fastest in both practice sessions by setting competitive lap times within a second behind Huff's times.

As overtaking wasn't an easy job in Macau, the first step to win a race here was to secure the highest possible starting position in the qualifying session. So the session on Friday was more important and attracted more attention than usual.

Keeping the momentum from the day before, Huff set the fastest time in Q1, although the gap with Yvan Muller in second was just 0.047 seconds. Then, again, the Briton was the fastest of all 12 drivers who made their way into Q2 and secured the pole position for Race 1, beating his rivals in the championship title chase, the factory Chevrolet teammates Muller and Menu.

On Sunday, Race 1 got underway with Huff sitting on the pole position. The things looked rosy for him until that point in time but, at that time, no one foresaw the drama that proved how cruel the Ghia Circuit could be was happening to him...

After a slow formation lap on the 6,117m race track led by a marshal car, the field duly made the rolling start, with Huff on the outside and Muller on the inside of the front row. Soon after the start, the Frenchman got ahead of the pole sitter at the Mandarin bend and Huff closely followed him, fending off the Menu's attack, when they entered the Lisboa corner.

Lisboa has been famous for being the hot spot of pileups and this was proved to be true again. Norbert Michelisz running in seventh and Mehdi Bennani who tried to dive to the Hungarian's inside, plus Stefano D'Aste right behind them tangled just before corner. With Pepe Oriola being involved in this accident too, these four cars halted on the spot and completely blocked the track.

Needless to say, the following cars had to stop there and this caused a big "traffic jam." But the race wasn't interrupted because of this, so the top six drivers who went through Lisboa before the accident, the three factory Chevrolet drivers, Gabriele Tarquini, Monteiro and Darryle O'Young now had a huge gap with the rest of the field.

When the leading six cars came to Lisboa again on Lap 2, the track was already cleared and there were no longer yellow flags in the section. Huff in second was threatening Muller before the entry of the Lisboa corner by weaving his car behind the teammate's but the veteran Frenchman wasn't fazed and firmly kept the lead position.

Being desperate to win this race and secure the championship title before the second race, Huff decided to make an attack on Lap 4. The Briton out-braked Muller in the entry of Lisboa to hold the inside line and managed to snatch the lead position from the teammate's hand. But, soon after this brilliant move, he was forced to take his car back to the pit, instead of leading the field on the pit straight. It was hard to imagine that he just let up after taking the lead but, as a matter of fact, he was almost losing control of his car at the Paiol bend and hit the barrier with the left hand side of his Chevrolet Cruze, resulting in retirement due to heavy damage on the car. It was an unbelievable happening because finishing in second was enough for him to secure the title crown.

Huff's dropout gave Menu not only the second place but more drive to win the race because now the chance of a dramatic reversal of the championship situation for him suddenly increased, as the championship leader ended the first race without adding any points. So the Swiss started to push the race leader very hard.

On the other hand, Muller was also desperate to win here because, surprisingly, he had never won a race in Macau and it was a good way for him to say good-bye to the factory Chevrolet team which would terminate its WTCC program at the end of this season.

Showing his spirit in trying to pass Muller somehow, Menu threatened the Frenchman when they were approaching to Lisboa on the penultimate lap and even slightly hit the teammate's car in the mountain section on the same lap. Muller's car was going sideways but he skillfully caught the car before getting into spinning and defended the lead position.

Muller managed to fend off the Menu's attack for one more lap and scored his first race victory in Macau which he had been awaiting for since the years he drove for the factory SEAT team before joining Chevrolet. As Menu finished the race in second, the showdown over the driver's championship title was carried over to Race 2. Monteiro in the Honda Civic finished in third. This was the first podium for the Japanese manufacturer with the new car only after five races since it had made a debut at Suzuka.



Race 2 was the final race of the 2012 championship and, laugh or cry, the season-long battle would end when the checkered flag fell. After the unexpected retirement, Huff sat on the ninth grid with his repaired car. Because of the reversed grid system, the pole position was given to Alex MacDowall in a Chevrolet Cruze, followed by the two YOKOHAMA Trophy contenders, Oriola and Michelisz, on the second and third grids.

At the standing start of the race, Michelisz's BMW rocketed from the second row, as anticipated, and took the lead of the field before they came to the Lisboa corner and went up to the mountain section. Behind him, Oriola who was in second in the YOKOHAMA Trophy point standings tried to hold on to the tail of the championship leader, Michelisz, but his attempt was denied by MacDowall, so the young Spaniard had to settle in third for now.

On Lap 2, MacDowall made a successful move on Michelisz at the entry of Lisboa and became the new race leader. Menu who was still fighting for the title crown overtook Oriola and then passed Michelisz as well on the same lap to move up to second.

The Swiss veteran in a blue factory Chevrolet was unstoppable and he dove to the inside of MacDowall at Lisboa on the next lap. While they went into the tight right hand corner side by side, it was Menu who was leading the race when the two Chevrolets entered to the following mountain section.

Thus the race of leaders was well worth watching but it had to be interrupted by the Safety Car period. On Lap 4, as MacDowall slightly ran wide in the Mandarin bend, Muller who was closely behind the Briton didn't overlook it and squeezed his car into the narrow space. But then MacDowall came back to the normal line and the two cars made contact. As a result, the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet driver spun and hit the guard rails, ending up with a retirement on the spot. Because of a lot of debris from MacDowall's car, the Safety Car came out and the race resumed only on Lap 9, as it took long time to clear up the track.

With only three laps to go, the race was re-started. However, on the first lap of the resumed racing, another accident happened. Approaching the Lisboa corner, Oriola tried to go inside of Michelisz but the Hungarian also steered toward the inside of the corner to negate Oriola's attempt and they tangled well before they would turn into the corner. As a consequence of contact, Michelisz spun and hit the guard rails, before halting on the small escape zone at Lisboa. The Spaniard wasn't so lucky, too. He drove over a large body part that fell off from the Michelisz' car when it hit the barrier, so he couldn't turn into the corner and ended up with crashing into the guard rails.

This caused the Safety Car to come out for the second time and the race ended when the field complete Lap 11 while they were still running behind the Safety Car. The winner was Menu, followed by Huff and Muller in second and third. This meant the factory Chevrolet team finished their last race with a podium domination, which was the perfect ending of their successful campaign. And Huff won the long awaited drivers' championship title, after spending his whole career in WTCC with the American manufacturer since 2005, the year WTCC was founded.

The battles of the YOKOHAMA Trophy contenders were equally eventful but, at the end of the day, the Hong Kong resident Chevrolet driver, O'Young, scored a double in Macau, while Michelisz won the championship.