A year has gone by since the inaugural Japanese event, the pinnacle of tin-top races of the world, as the FIA World Touring Car Championship, returned to Okayama International Circuit.

While the reigning champion Yvan Muller in a SEAT Leon TDi was the fastest driver in the special practice session held in Friday afternoon, he was followed by the BMW ace Augusto Farfus who wanted to keep his championship chance alive. So it looked that we would see some fierce battles between the title contenders.

The sky in Okayama was clear on Saturday morning, as it was the day before. In the two 30 minute free practice sessions, Farfus remained on the top of the time sheets, appearing that he was the favorite for Sunday's races.

But, in the decisive qualifying session, it was another BMW driver, Jorg Muller, who set the pace in Q1 with the best time of 1'37"914 and no other driver was able to put a time in the 1'37" bracket. The German seemed to get along well with this Japanese track, as he narrowly missed the pole position in Okayama last year.

Among the top ten drivers - all of them were from manufacturer teams - in Q1, Jordi Gene in second was the fastest of the SEAT camp. The current championship leader, Gabriele Tarquini, was in fifth and his title contending rivals, Yvan Muller and Farfus, ended Q1 in seventh and eighth respectively.

The highlight of Q2 came in the closing stage when everyone tried to shave off last hundredths from their best times and the early leader, Jorg Muller, was beaten in the last minutes of this 10 minute session by Tarquini and Andy Priaulx. This was the Italian's fifth pole position of the season and he had become the fastest qualifier for recent three consecutive events, Germany, Italy and Japan. But, in the end, it was so close and the top three was covered by just a 0.06 second.

On the first day of November, the teams were preparing for the races in the second Japanese event of the WTCC's history. Although the warm up session in early morning was run under a clear sky, the weather forecast said it was to rain heavily in afternoon, which was somewhat hard to believe in the morning.

But the rain front surely came over and the sky became overcast gradually. And it began to rain when the Formula Four regional champions' showdown race was about to start, so the WTCC's Race 1 was to be run on the wet track.

Although it could have been unfortunate to have a wet Japanese round for two years running, many enthusiastic fans turned out from all over the country and watched the start of Race 1. As the rain became heavier, and it was the first time for the driver to drive on a wet track this weekend, it was decided to add two extra laps led by the Safety Car following to the rolling start for the first race of the day. Because the WTCC rules says that the laps during Safety Car period aren't included in the race distance, now the total distance of Race 1 became 16 laps - 14 laps of originally scheduled race distance plus two Safety Car laps.

When the race properly started, the pole sitting Tarquini took the lead at the first corner but he improbably went off on his own at Turn 2. This gave Priaulx the lead position for free.

In terms of the championship battle, it was a heaven-sent opportunity for Farfus but the Brazilian went off at the same Turn 2 on the next lap! With two leading title contender slipping down, the race went on in a totally unexpected way.

The second half of the race saw a close racing for a win between two BMW drivers. Jorge Muller in the runner-up position pushed the leader so hard, showing a very good pace especially from Lap 10 to 14, but the three time champion was skillful enough to hold off the German's challenge and was able to score his second win of the season, since Race 1 of the German round.

Muller finished in second, followed by Rob Huff who overtook Gene on Lap 9. The Briton's third place brought Chevrolet something to celebrate, the first ever podium finish on Japanese soil.

After resuming the race in eighth, Tarquini earned three positions on his way to finish in fifth, just one place shy of his teammate Yvan Muller. On the other hand, Farfus moved up from the 14th place and involved in the battle for eighth with Alan Menu in the closing stage. The BMW driver eventually overtook his opponent's Chevrolet on the penultimate lap after some side-by-side dogfights and therefore got the pole position on the reversed grids of Race 2.

Utilizing his past experience on the Japanese race track, Tom Coronel in the SUNRED Engineering's SEAT Leon TFSI won the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy by a massive 20 second margin to the runner-up Felix Porteiro driving the Proteam Motorsport's BMW.

Although the rain temporarily eased off after the first race, it got heavier again when the starting procedures for Race 2 began and the cars were about to sit on their grids.

At the standing start for Race 2 on the very wet track, which is said to be advantageous for the rear-wheel-drive cars, Farfus made a good getaway and led the field when they entered Turn 1. He also went through the next corner without a hitch and was going to establish his position as the race leader.

In contrast with the Brazilian's smooth opening lap, there was havoc behind him. With many cars going off the track in the area between Turn 1 and Turn 2, Tarquini was involved in it and dropped down to 17th. Contrarily, Priaulx and Menu, who started from the eighth and ninth grids respectively, were lucky enough to gain positions in this melee and completed the lap in second and fourth.

Then Priaulx came close to the race leader but Farfus never opened the door for the fellow BMW driver and duly got his fifth victory of the season. With his win and Priaulx's second place finish, the German manufacturer concluded this Japanese round with a double one-two.

Representing the SEAT camp, Yvan Muller got on the podium by finishing third. Tarquini tried hard to recover from the first lap incident and, thanks to the teammates Gene and Rickard Rydell slowing down to give way for him on the final lap, managed to finish in eighth, which was enough for him to remain as the championship leader.

YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy winner was Stefano D'Aste, who overtook Felix Porteiro on Lap 4 and led the class throughout thereafter.