After two consecutive street track events, at Marrakech in Morocco and Pau in France, the FIA World Touring Car Championship came back to a "normal" permanent circuit. The venue of the fifth round - the ninth and tenth races - of the series was the Ricardo Tormo race track in Valencia, Spain.

Looking back at the first four rounds, eight races, of the season, SEAT won four races in a row from the season opener and Chevrolet did the same for the last four races. Surprisingly, in stark contrast with them, BMW hadn't won a race for some time, since the Oschersleben round in Germany on August 31, 2008.

One of the unique features of WTCC is that the petrol engine cars and the diesel engine cars are put in the same arena, which is a rare in sprint races. Although such variety of cars from four car manufacturers attracts many motor sport fans from all over the world, there has been much discussion about the series' technical regulations this year.

There were some controversies especially on the maximum boost pressure for diesel turbo engines and the maximum r.p.m. for both petrol and diesel engines in these two rounds. Efforts were made to unify the interpretation of the regulations and there seems to progress toward resolution of the various contentions which have been raised.
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Two main topics of this Spanish round were how the SEAT drivers would perform in the manufacturer's home races and when the BMW camp would break its duck, spending a long period of time without a win.

The top three slots of Qualifying Session 1 on Saturday, in which all competitors run, were filled by the diesel-powered SEAT Leons. Eventually, all five cars run by the SEAT Sport team successfully made it through to Session 2 which only top ten qualifiers in Q1 were allowed to run.

August Farfus, with the fourth fastest time, was the only BMW driver who survived for Q2. He was joined by three Chevrolet drivers and Tom Coronel completed the top ten in Q1 as the only independent class driver to do so.

The Spanish manufacturer was the dominant force again in Q2. Gabriele Tarquini posted 1min 44.414 secs, which was the fastest of the session, and led the 'Yellow Train' formed by his teammates, Yvan Muller, Jordi Gene and Tiago Monteiro.

Farfus was fifth and Alain Menu, the best of Chevrolet drivers, followed in sixth on the starting grid of Race 1 - the ninth race of the series. Coronel registered the seventh fastest time in Q2 but was demoted to tenth on the grid because his car weighed slightly lighter than the minimum required weight at the scrutineering after the session.

The two races on Sunday were run for 13 laps each on the 4,005m race track. When the 25 car field rushed into Turn 1 after the start of Race 1, a few cars tangled with each other and were pushed out of the track. As a result of this, the two SEAT drivers, Gene and Rydell who started from the third and eighth grid respectively, lost a lot of ground already.

At the front of the pack, Muller overtook his pole sitting teammate on the opening lap and led the race. While there were some more incidents, the Frenchman was able to remain in the position throughout the race and took the checkered flag to secure his third win of the season.

Finishing in second and third, Monteiro and Tarquini completed the all-SEAT podium on the marque's home soil, which a crowd of Spanish spectators would have liked to see. The YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class was won by Coronel.

On the starting grids for Race 2, which was decided by the reverse grid rule for the top eight finishers in Race 1, Sergio Hernandez of BMW Team Italy-Spain, who was given a factory backed car this season, sat on the pole position alongside of Coronel's petrol-powered SEAT Leon TFSI.

But the rear wheel drive BMW 320si inherently has a slight advantage at standing starts. Making the most of it, Jorg Muller departing from the third grid took the lead soon after the start, followed by another BMW driver, Farfus.

The Brazilian then overtook the race leader on Lap 3 and, while displaying some close racing with Muller, he managed to keep his position until the finish and crossed the line to score the BMW's first win of the season.

Tarquini followed Muller to finish in third, after beating Andy Priaulx who was in hot pursuit on Lap 8, and thwarted the all-BMW podium.

However, with Alex Zanardi and Sergio Hernandez finishing in fifth and sixth, the BMW drivers still dominated five out of top six slots. The independent class was also won by Stefano D'Aste in a Wiechers-Sport run BMW, thanks partly to Coronel's less than perfect getaway from the front row.

BMW's resurgence in Spain certainly made the championship more interesting. The next round at Brno, Czech, on June 21 will see increasingly more heated battles between the leading competitors, now including the BMW stars, for sure.