The world's pinnacle of sprint races by touring cars, the 2010 FIA World Touring Car Championship, now entered the middle phase of the season. The venue of the latest round was Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. The Portugese circuit hosted the WTCC races for the first time ever, as was the case in the previous Belgian round in Zolder.

The championship had as many as 430 million TV viewers in 2009, not only in Europe where its base is located but all over the world. The reason for that global popularity might be, above all, the hot and close battles it offers.

Such battles have been backed by the ADVAN racing tires. Assuming great responsibility as the official and sole tire suppler for WTCC, the Japanese tire manufacturer has provided 37,956 slick and wet tires in total to the competitors of the championship since the curtain raiser of 2006 season.

The WTCC tires are identical for all the competitors and it is important to maintain strict fairness to all of them, even if they run different models with different chassis layout. Although the regulations allow the teams to use the tire warmers, the tires should have a good warm up characteristics which provide a higher initial grip level and, obviously, should have a certain durability as well to endure hard driving until the finish.

In short, those tires must have good total performance which meets severe requirements of the world championship races. On top of this, ADVAN has answered many requests from the race organizers, teams and drivers in order to promote a trust relationship with them, utilizing the company's highly respected technological capability and huge experience. And, for this season, ADVAN supplies Eco Racig Tires which emphasize the environmental performance. Because of these continuous efforts, the Japanese tire manufacturer is highly appreciated as the official tire supplier of the world championship.

This Portuguese round was the ADVAN's 100th race as the official supplier and all the competing cars carried the commemorative logo marks on their wind screens and car number frames.

Tiago Moteiro in a SEAT Leon TDi was the fastest driver in the qualifying sessions on Saturday. The 33 year old Portuguese, who would reach his next birth day later in the month, had scored two victories in WTCC and the latest one had been achieved in another Portuguese race track, Circuito do Estoril, two years ago.

The fans at Algarve were naturally excited by a good prospect for the local ace. Carrying great expectations from his compatriots, Moteiro led the field for a rolling lap of Race 1 and made a fine start.

As the leading cars entered Turn 1, Gabriele Tarquini's SEAT, which started from the fourth grid, moved up to third by overtaking a BMW with August Farfus at the wheel. After they went through the corner, the Italian began his hard challenge to Yvan Muller in a Chevrolet Cruze for the second place.

This battle gave the leading Monteiro some room to breathe for a few laps. During the period, he was also able to preserve his tires for the rest of the race.

But, from Lap 7, Muller put a huge pressure on the race leader by pushing very hard from behind and they actually had a few moments running side by side. However, the Frenchman didn't find an opportunity to make a decisive move before the finish and Moteiro received the checkered flag of the 11 lap race first. Being greeted with the Portuguese fans' applause, he loudly acted out his joy of the first win in two years on the home soil.

The winner of YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy was Sergio Hernandez. Despite being involved in some tail to nose battle in the second half of the race, the BMW driver eventually led throughout the race to score his fourth class win of the season.

It was still very hot when the second race was about to begin and the air temperature stayed around 34℃ as it did during Race 1, although the surface temperatures dropped a little to 44℃. According to the reversed grid rule, the pole position for Race 2 was given to Fredy Barth, followed by Norbert Michelisz and Tom Coronel. This meant that the turbo diesel powered SEAT's sat on the top three slots.

Michelisz made a very good start and led the field when they rushed into the first corner. But his opponents didn't allow him to pull away and, on the pit straight of Lap 4, Alan Menu in a Chevrolet and Tarquini jumped on him at the same time. The two veterans overtook the Hungarian driver well before Turn 1 and then began the fierce fight for the lead between them.

Menu gained the upper hand at Turn 1, a right-hander, but Tarquini dived into the inside of the Chevrolet, making the most of a broader track width of Algarve, as the Swiss took a bit wider line there. When they approached to Turn 2, a right-hander again, the SEAT driver kept it tight on the inside and got the lead position.

Then Tarquini managed to remain in that position until the finish and added the fourth victory of the season, and the 14th of his WTCC career, to his tally. Now he became the second winningest driver in the championship, only following to Farfus and Andy Priaulx who had earned 15 carrer wins each.

YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class saw a first-time winner. After Hernandez dropped out of contention due to a contact during the opening lap, Darryl O'Young in a Chevrolet Lacetti led the class throughout. Fending off the challenges by the likes of Colin Turkington, who made the first appearance this year, and O'Young's teammate, Harry Vaulkhard, the man from Hong Kong eventually finished the race in tenth overall to score his maiden victory in the class.