Brands Hatch has been the venue of the World Touring Car Championship's U.K. round for five consecutive years since 2006. Although Silverstone Circuit had been honored to hold the U.K. round of the championship in its inaugural year, 2005, the event at Brands Hatch has now become a popular fixture.

In this event, a Volvo C30 made its first appearance this season. The Swedish manufacturer has been an occasional participant of the series since 2007 when it began to run the race cars with bio fuel as a forerunner in WTCC, while nowadays all competitors in the championship use the environmental friendly fuel.

Meanwhile, Liqui Moly Team Engstler entered Tim Coronel for this U.K. round as a substitute for Andrei Romanov. Tom's twin brother, driving a BMW 320si this time, made his first appearance since the Bruno round last year and aimed to better his best result in the championship, 12th overall.

In the first section of qualifying session, Q1, the Chevrolet drivers, led by Yvan Muller, dominated the top three slots. And, remarkably, two independent class drivers, Colin Turkington and Franz Engstler both driving a BMW, got their positions amongst the top ten drivers who were allowed to go on to Q2.

The Chevrolet Cruzes were the quickest around the track in Q2 again and Muller sat on the pole position, followed by his two teammates in the same bright blue cars on the grids for Race 1. The surprising fourth fastest was Turkington. His BMW 320si was considered as an older model, as with the car for Mehdi Bennani, Kristian Poulsen and Engstler, which was allowed to run with a lighter compensation weight, comparing with that for the factory BMW drivers, Andy Priaulx and August Farfus. Even though this fact certainly helped Turkington, taking up the fourth grid by beating the factory cars from SEAT or BMW was a great feat for an independent class driver anyway.

The first race on Sunday began under the clear sky. After a clean rolling start, three Chevrolets led the race and the reigning champion, Gabriele Tarquini starting from the fifth grid, demonstrated his skill to overtake Turkington and moved up to fourth.

The leading Chevrolet drivers kept a solid formation. Just as the invincible SEATs were known as "the yellow train" in the past, Race 1 at Brands Hatch was led by "the blue train." Meanwhile, Turkington's BMW was closing in on the leading pack and, on Lap 4, regained the fourth place by overtaking Tarquini from inside at Turn 2, after registering the fastest lap on the previous two laps.

The Briton didn't slack off and, in the middle phase of the race, began to push Alan Menu in third. The Swiss, who had won the previous four races at Brands Hatch in a row, now had to concentrate on defending his position against Turkington who put heavy pressure by weaving his car just behind Menu's Chevrolet.

On Lap 8, another Chevrolet Cruze driven by Carlos "Caca" Bueno caught fire due to a mechanical problem and this caused the Safety Car to come out. When the race resumed on Lap 12, the leading Chevrolet duo, Muller and Rob Huff, safely kept their formation but the battle for third between Menu and Turkington was fuelled by this Safety Car period. And the independent BMW driver managed to pass the Chevrolet in front of him on a short straightaway after Turn 8 on the penultimate lap.

The 16 lap race was won by Muller and his teammate Huff followed. This was the Frenchman's third victory of the season. The winner of YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class, Turkington, impressively finished in third to take a place on the overall podium.

The pole position of Race 2 was given to Priaulx, as he finished Race 1 in eighth. However, he was classified in seventh in the official result because, after the event was over, Menu who finished in seventh was given a 30 second time penalty for his intentional slowing down just before the finish, trying to get a better starting position for the second race.

Farfus, from the third grid, made the best getaway at the standing start for Race 2 and went through the space between Priaulx and Menu to lead the pack at the first corner. But, on Lap 3, his teammate from Guernsey dived into Farfus's inside at Turn 2 and managed to overtake him. Menu also tried to follow Priaulx's path but the Swiss's move resulted in an entanglement of these three leaders. Only Priaulx escaped the incident almost intact, while the Brazilian spun and lost a lot of ground and Menu's car had a severe damage in its steering system due to the impact.

As two out of three early leaders now fell back, Turkington inherited the second place. Farfus pushed hard to regain some positions but wasn't able to get through the back markers, as some of them were fighting for positions in the independent class and were rightfully reluctant to give way.

The race was settled for a while but, on Lap 11, Darryl O'Young's Chevrolet Lacetti and Bennani' BMW tangled at Turn 2 and both halted on the gravel bed. To clear the stranded cars away, the Safety Car came out for the second time for the day. But Priaulx made a good restart when the racing resumed and pulled away to lead the remaining three laps until the finish.

Turkington finished in second to get on the overall podium again along with the leading championship contenders and, of course, secured his second YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy victory of the day. Tarquini came in third to add some more precious points to his tally, as his car set-up alteration after the first race seemed to pay off.