After nearly a monthlong 'summer break,' the fifteenth and sixteenth rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) were held at Oschersleben Motor Sport Arena. As the season has already past its mid-point, interest in the championship battle was mounting and this German event could possibly be the key for the title crown.

BMW has been the dominant force at home and Oschersleben's podium has always been occupied by drivers belonging to the German carmaker since the WTCC's inaugural year. But there was a change to the pattern last year. Although they finished in first and second in Race 2, no one from the BMW camp stood on the podium after Race 1, which was quite embarrassing for them.

The winning manufacturer in that race was SEAT. And the win scored by Yvan Muller and his Leon TDI was remarkable because it was the first ever win for a diesel powered car in the history of the series.

One year has past since then and the two manufacturers are again contending for the championship, but the strong showing made by SEAT this year has been very impressive. After the previous round in the U.K., the SEAT drivers occupied the top two slots of the drivers' championship and the Spanish marque was leading the manufacturers' championship against the German rival.

For Andy Priaulx and BMW, which have dominated the championship for the last three seasons since the inception of the WTCC, this home event for the manufacturer was very important in order to stage a comeback in the closing stages of the season and defend their title crowns in the drivers' and manufacturers' championships.

The star of the first race was Augusto Farfus of BMW Team Germany. Although he had to settle for sixth in the qualifying session, he registered the fastest times in the two practice sessions on Saturday and the warm up session on Sunday morning as well and proved to be in good form in this weekend.

After making a good start from the third row, Farfus steered clear of some incidents at Turn 1, a nearly right-angled left-hander, and surprisingly took the lead at the exit of the first corner. Then the Brazilian sped away from his rivals and stayed in the leading position for the rest of the race. It was his second win of the season since he won the seventh race of the series at Pau.

The runners-up were Chevrolet drivers. Rob Huff finished in second after moving up on Lap 5 and his teammate Alain Menu, who moved up to third on Lap 6, followed him to join the celebration on the podium.

On the other hand, it was another frustrating race for the SEAT camp because there was no representative of the Spanish marque on the podium for the second race running just as in Race 2 of the British round (the fourteenth race of the series). Priaulx was force to retire due to a course off on Lap 8.

One remarkable finisher was Jaap van Lagen in a Lada 110. He beat James Thompson (driving a Honda Accord) and finished in fifteenth which was the Russian Bears Motorsport's best result of the season so far.

Race 2 started ten minutes before four p.m. According to the reverse grid rule, Felix Porteiro of BMW Team Italy-Spain sat on the pole position, followed by Tom Coronel in a SEAT Leon TFSI which is a petrol engine version, Rickard Rydell, Jordi Gene and Tiago Monteiro were all driving diesel powered SEAT Leon TDIs.

The first left-turn of the track has often provoked multi-car crashes immediately after starts, as it did last year and Safety Car intervention was required. The second race of the day was another example. While some of the top rankers were forced to retire or drop their positions in the incident, the pole sitter, Porteiro, wasn't affected by it at all. He was closely pursued by Coronel, who was looking for an opportunity to take over the top slot, but the BMW driver never gave way to the Dutchman.

After retaining his lead position throughout the race, Porteiro scored his first win of the season, much to his delight. Coronel finished in second, followed by Huff who made his third consecutive podium finish since Race 2 of the British round.