After a three week interval, the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) series visited the Imora circuit for the first time since 2005, the inaugural year of the series.

Among the remaining four events, the final and penultimate rounds of the season in Macau and Japan (the first ever WTCC event in that country) are the fly-away events in Asia. Therefore, two consecutive Italian rounds in Imora and Monza (to be held two weeks later) would conclude the European leg of the series.

Since there were major renovations on the track in 2006, additional practice sessions were provided for competitors to learn the new layout of the track on Friday. After that, two practice sessions were scheduled for Saturday morning before the qualifying session in the afternoon. The timetable for Sunday customarily had the warm-up session in the morning, then two races with a two and a half hour interval between them.

James Thompson driving a Honda Accord attracted much attention because he registered the fastest time in the first practice session on Saturday. After confirming his good form with the third fastest time in the following session, he was the fastest driver again in the warm-up session prior to Race 1, while the Briton had to settle for fifth in the qualifying session, beaten by two SEAT drivers, Rickard Rydell and Yvan Muller, and two Chevrolet drivers, Alain Menu and Rob Huff.

Race 1 (the 17th race of the series) started at twenty minutes past noon on Sunday, September 21. From the double file formation in which the competitors completed the rolling lap, Muller started from the second grid and passed the pole sitter (and his teammate) Rydell and took the lead on Lap 1.

Despite dropping to seventh at the start, Thompson displayed a furious pursuit from Lap 2, registering the fastest lap time in the process. He moved up to sixth on that lap and then overtook Gabriele Tarquini's SEAT using his slip stream on Lap 4, which moved the Honda driver to fifth.

His next target was Menu's Chevrolet Lacetti. Thompson attacked the rival in front of him throughout Lap 6 and finally the two bumped each other after some side-by-side scuffles. In the aftermath of the contact, Menu wasn't able to keep his car on the track and ended his race in a gravel trap.

Thompson's momentum seemed to be unstoppable even in the closing phase of the race. He continued to play out head-to-head battles which were typical of a WTCC event and caught up to Huff's Chevrolet which was running third at that time. On Lap 10 (with 2 laps to go), the Honda driver squeezed into the inside of his fellow countryman at the first left-hander of Rivazza and, after running through the corner side-by-side, robbed him of third place at the next left-hander.

Thompson finished Race 1 in third, following the two SEAT drivers, Muller and Rydell. This was his first podium finish with Honda Accord and the staff of N.Technology team was delighted with the result.

Two and a half hours later, Race 2 (the 18th race of the series) got underway. According to the reverse grid rule, Jorg Muller of BMW Team Germany sat on the pole position followed by his teammate Augusto Farfus.

When the red signals blacked out at the standing start for Race 2, Gabriele Tarquini's SEAT stalled on the grid and was hit hard from behind by Felix Porteiro's BMW. Both cars were badly damaged, so the Safety Car run was required to clear up the track and remove the spilt fluid.

Because of the Safety Car intervention, the race distance was extended to 13 laps from the originally planned 11 laps. The race resumed from Lap 5, after the fluid and remains on the track had been completely removed and the Safety Car retreated at the end of Lap 4. At that point, Jorg Muller led the race and Nicola Larini in another Chevrolet moved up to second from the third grid. And, surprisingly, Thompson managed to leap into third, despite starting from sixth.

As soon as the race resumed, Thompson gave no quarter to Larini in front of him. It didn't take long for the Briton to takeover the second position from his Italian rival and now he started to chase down Muller's BMW.

The gap between them was gradually reduced and the German driver's lead was only 0.151 of a second when they crossed the control line at the end of Lap 6. Thompson took the outside of the remaining oil absorbing powder on the pit straight and Muller ran through the other side. The former finally overtook the latter just after they cleared Turn 1. When they came back to the pit straight and completed Lap 7, Thompson was leading with a 0.771 second gap.

As Muller wasn't able to counterattack, Thompson took the checkered flag in his Accord. The win was the Japanese marque's maiden victory in the WTCC. This was also the first win for him since the last year's Spanish round and his team crew welcomed the win with much more delight than they had at the finish of Race 1.