As the final round of the 2008 World Touring Car Championship's European leg began with Round 3 at Valencia, Spain, the tenth round of the series was held at Monza, Italy.

The Monza round attracted the largest entries of the season which consisted of as many as 30 drivers, including three Japanese newcomers to the WTCC, Manabu Orido (Chevrolet Lacetti), Takayuki Aoki (BMW 320si) and Yukinori Taniguchi (Honda Accord), who gained much attention among the illustrious participants.

Because Monza is one of the fastest race tracks among WTCC venues, SEAT looked to be the dominant force here. Led by the drivers' championship leader, Yvan Muller, who took the pole position, the top four slots in the qualifying session on Saturday were occupied by the SEAT Sport team's drivers, Gabriele Tarquini, Jordi Gene and Rickard Rydell. As for the Japanese corps, Orido, Aoki and Taniguchi sat on the 20th, 22nd and 26th grids for Race 1, respectively.

Under a clear sky on Sunday, Race 1 (the 19th race of the series) began with a rolling start. Although the few leading cars went through Turn 1 without any problems, the followers jostled against each other when they entered the first corner, which is not an unusual scene in the WTCC.

The first victim was James Thompson, the race winner in the previous round at Imora. He lost control of his Honda Accord and went sideways in the middle of the track. The following drivers had no choice but cutting the chicane and driving off the track. Three luckless drivers, including Thompson, were forced to retire the race on the spot.

Muller was leading at the end of Lap 1 and two more SEAT Leon TDIs driven by Tarquini and Rydell followed. Nicola Larini in a Chevrolet Lacetti was fourth, ahead of the BMW pair, Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx.

On Lap 3, Larini launched a bold attack on Rydell but the defense of the SEAT driver was impregnable. Afterwards, the Italian began to commit himself to defending his fourth position against the pursuing BMW pair.

At Turn 1 of Lap 5, Tarquini took over the top slot. And Priaulx passed Farfus on the same lap to move up to fifth, demonstrating his tenacity for defending the drivers' title in a difficult situation. However, his move was a blow for Farfus, as the Brazilian had to give up the race due to the damage from contact with Priaulx.

The leading SEAT drivers kept their formation firmly throughout most of the second half of the race but Muller dived into the inside of his Italian teammate at Turn 1 of the closing lap to regain the lead position. Larini made a final assault on Rydell at the same place of the same lap, involving some physical contact between them, but he failed to get the result he wanted.

After the top three SEATs finished in this order, however, Rydell was handed a penalty for cutting the chicane (Turn 1) when he defended his position against Larini's attack. As a result, following the top two finishers, Muller and Tarquini, Priaulx took the third place because Larini slowed down and fell to sixth on the final lap.

All three Japanese drivers finished their debut race. The highest finisher among them was Orido in 15th, followed by Aoki (17th) and Taniguchi (21st). Orido and Aoki displayed a fierce battle by bumping into each other, which is seldom seen between them when competing in their homeland.

Race 2 (the 20th race of the series) was even more spectacular than Race 1.

According to the reverse grid rule, Alex Zanardi of BMW Team Italy-Spain sat on the pole position ahead of Gene and Rob Huff (Chevrolet).

While the competitors were taking their grids for the standing start for Race 2, Orido's Chevrolet Lacetti was found to have trouble with his drive shaft. Thanks to a quick repair job by his team crew who wore brow bands with two bold Japanese letters which said "we always win," he was able to rejoin the race from the pit lane.

At Turn 1, there was no major incident such as that which happened in Race 1 except for some pushing and shoving but many side-by-side battles were displayed throughout the field.

Gene overtook Zanardi on Lap 2. And then the Italian BMW driver's position was threatened from behind by Tarquini who started from the seventh grid, Yvan Muller and Larini.

After Tarquini managed to pass his fellow countryman on Lap 3, third place was hotly contended by Zanardi, Larini and Muller with some spectacular three widths battles. But Zanardi's resistance didn't last long and Larini moved up to third, followed by the Frenchman.

Between the two leading SEAT drivers, Tarquini went around the outside of his teammate Gene at the first chicane of Lap 7 and took over the top slot. Meanwhile, the pursuing Priaulx made a mistake while braking at the same corner and went off the track, which led to the premature ending of his race.

Larini's attempt to break into the leading SEATs in the closing stage was denied by Gene's skillful block and, eventually, Tarquini and Gene achieved a one-two finish of the Spanish marque again after the same feat in Race 1.

After the Monza round, Yvan Muller is leading the drivers' championship with 95 points, followed by one of his teammates, Tarquini (86 points). The reigning champion and the highest ranked driver of the BMW camp, Priaulx, is fifth with 61 points, following Huff and Rydell who are third and fourth respectively. The situation now looks to be quite tough for the BMW driver if he wants to retain the title crown for the fourth straight year.

As for the Japanese drivers, Orido finished Race 2 in 17th. But Aoki had to retire due to damage from contact with Andrei Romanov's BMW and Taniguchi also failed to complete the race because of mechanical trouble with his transmission system which had persisted since the qualifying session.