After the curtain raiser at Brazil a fortnight ago, the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) visited Mexico. The venue of the third and fourth race of the championship was Puebla, a permanent race track located at high altitude exceeding 2,000 meters above sea level.

Following the total domination by the SEAT drivers in the season opener, Rickard Rydell driving a SEAT Leon TDi was the fastest man in the free practice sessions on Friday. But the BMW drivers were able to close in this time and Augusto Farfus and Jorg Muller finished the second practice session in second and third respectively. In addition, Felix Porteiro, who joined the independent Scuderia Proteam Motorsport team this year, proved what he could do in a privately-run BMW 320si with the sixth fastest time in the same session.

On Saturday, according to the new qualifying format introduced this year, firstly the top ten qualifiers were picked in Qualify 1. The leading two manufacturers were close again and the fastest time was registered by Farfus, followed by the Italian SEAT pilot, Gabriele Tarquini, in second and eventually the other eight slots were also filled up with the SEAT and BMW drivers. Remarkably, the final and tenth slot to advance to Qualify 2 was won by an independent class runner, Porteiro, beating several other manufacturer team drivers.

The German marque seemed to have the upper hand in the decisive Q2 session and Farfus sat on the pole position for Race 1, with another BMW driver, Andy Priaulx, who followed him to complete an all BMW front row.

But soon after the start of the first race - the third contest of the championship - on Sunday, the SEAT drivers, who started from the second and third row, assaulted Farfus and Priaulx from behind and Rydell took the lead position already during the opening lap.

With others including the Chevrolet drivers unfolding fierce battles behind him, the Swede was able to pull away from them lap by lap to firmly secure his position as the race leader.

Rydell eventually got on the center of podium and maintained the SEAT's winning streak from the season opener but the other two places of the podium went to the BMW drivers this time, Farfus and Priaulx. The YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class was duly won by Porteiro.

Nicola Larini's Chevrolet Cruze sat on the pole position for Race 2 - the fourth race of the championship, according to the order determined by the reverse grid rule. But the Italian made a bad start and the second race of the day became a confused fight from the early stage.

In the middle phase of the race, all Chevrolet drivers gradually lost ground, so the race became a repeated confrontation between the two camps, SEAT and BMW. Their fights heated up more and more and some aggressive neck-and-neck battles with physical contact unfolded, which is typical of the WTCC races.

At the front of the field, the reigning champion Yvan Muller took the top slot on Lap 8, closely followed by Priaulx who remained there until the final phase. But the BMW ace's pursuit didn't lead to a dramatic reversal and the Frenchman scored his second win of the season following the first one in Brazil.

Porteiro, who finished the race in ninth overall, took the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class win again, which meant he had already won four races in as many rounds so far.

After a little longer interval, the championship will begin its European leg with the Moroccan round at Marrakech held on May 3rd. It will be the first WTCC event in the Kingdom and the first world championship race event in many years for them.

The Compensation Weight system will be in force from the Moroccan round, reflecting the results from the first two races of the season, so this might put the brakes on the SEAT's dominance in the early stage of the championship.