Since its curtain raiser in March, the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship has toured around three continents, South America, Africa and Europe. Now, in the second half of September, it reached the final event of the European leg, the tenth round (the 19th and 20th races), held at Imola, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, in Italy.

After a double win in their homeland Germany, BMW and its ace driver, Augusto Farfus, had come close to the leaders, SEAT and Gabriele Tarquini, in both drivers' and manufacturers' championship. It is almost certain that the title contentions will become hotter in the forthcoming closing rounds but this Italian event was totally dominated by the SEAT camp.

It was fine on Sunday, September 20. On the starting grid for Race 1, which had been decided in the qualifying session on Saturday, the drivers' championship leader, Tarquini took the pole position with one of SEAT Sport's Leon TDis. The Italian was followed by two teammates, Yvan Muller who was the championship runner-up and Rickard Rydell, which made all SEAT top three slots.

The race began with a rolling start under the clear sky - perfect weather for watching races - with ambient/track temperatures being 23.9/40.6℃. And when the field rushed into the first chicane, the inevitable happened. Rydell hit the back end of Rob Huff's Chevrolet Cruze and triggered carnage in which even the leading cars including Tarquini were almost eliminated on the spot.

When the Safety Car was deployed, the most unlucky victim, Farfus, was crawling back to his pit, dragging the damaged rear bumper, only to give up the race in the pit with no points in his hand.

While there was another Safety Car period in the closing stage, Tarquini led throughout the otherwise quiet race and, in front of the cheering local fans, finished first after narrowly escaping from the first lap carnage. His teammate Muller followed in second.

Tom Coronel took his fourth win of the season in the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class. This win was a step forward to the championship title for him, as his new backer for the closing two rounds in Japan and Macau was announced just before this event, while he might have had to end the season earlier without it.

It became a bit warmer, as the time for the start of Race 2 approached. The reversed grid determined by the result of Race 1 saw Chevrolet's Alain Menu sitting on the pole position, followed by Sergio Hernandez (BMW Team Italy-Spain), James Thompson (LADA Sport), Coronel and Hernandez's teammate Alex Zanardi.

Audi Priaulx (BMW Team UK) and Farfus started the race from the 15th and 22nd grids respectively, which predicted uphill battles for them.

Although Menu kept the top slot for a few laps, the top two finishers of Race 1, Tarquini and Muller were in hot pursuit after starting from the eighth and seventh grid, pushing really hard from the opening lap. And these three drivers were in a close battle for the lead position as early as Lap 3.

Then after displaying some exciting three-width fights, the SEAT drivers took the upper hand and formed a one-two, led by the Frenchman this time.

Afterward, the top two gradually pulled away from Menu and proved the SEAT's dominance at the Italian track again. This time, Muller scored a win, closely followed by Tarquini, in an inverted order to the result of Race 1.

The YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy was won by Stefano D'Aste in the Wiechers-Sport's BMW 320si.

In this round, the Lada Sport team attracted much attention, as they entered a third Priora for James Thompson. Since the Briton last year registered the maiden victory of Honda Accord here at Imola, many expected the return of his strong performance with the Russian manufacturer's new model. And he certainly confirmed the Lada's steady progress during both races of the day.

Thompson contended for the sixth place in Race 1 against D'Aste and Menu, with Priaulx joining it later in the race. Leading this pack, he skillfully drove his Priora which has a bit smaller body than his opponents' BMW and Chevrolet and eventually managed to finish in sixth. This meant he became the first driver ever to bring the championship points to Lada.

And he also performed well in Race 2. After strongly running in a five-car leading echelon for a while, he was able to held off the attack from the likes of Rydell and Farfus in the closing stage and finished in sixth again. For sure, his double point finish at Imola greatly emphasized his and Lada's presence in the championship.