After a long summer break, the FIA World Touring Car Championship, which consists of 22 races in 11 rounds this year, held its 15th and 16th races in Oschersleben, Germany.

During the qualifying session on Saturday, unfortunately, Q2 was hit by drizzle just as top ten drivers of Q1 were about to start their time attacks. On the damp track, August Farfus in a BMW 320si got the pole position with his best time of 1'38"070 in the home event of the German manufacturer. This added something to the Brazilian's already mood of celebrating, as he had just reached his 27th birthday on the day before.

Rob Huff took the other slot on the front row, as the fastest representative of Chevrolet which was elated by the hope of the long awaited manufacturers' title. And another BMW driver, Andy Priaulx, also displayed good speed and sat on the third grid, which suggested that this German race track might become BMW's happy hunting ground again, as it had been for year.

Race 1 began with a rolling start in which the field was led by the pole sitting Farfus. But, within a few moments contact between Alan Menu and Gabriele Tarquini, who started from the fourth and fifth grid respectively, well before the first corner caused turmoil and Priaulx was also got involved in this. As a result, the BMW driver was forced to fall back to seventh despite starting from the third grid but Tarquini suffered most among them, as the Italian had no choice as his damaged car halted on the track and prematurely ended his race so early during the opening lap.

On top of this, the pole sitter was hit by Huff when they entered Turn 1, the right angle left-hander, and Farfus momentarily lost control of his car, resulting in losing a few positions. At the end of the first lap, Huff was leading the race, followed by one of his Chevrolet teammates Menu, and then Tom Coronel in a SEAT and Farfus were in third and fourth.

The German round saw an eventful start which has been common practice in WTCC but, of course, the races are run under certain rules, even if the fierce battle in the series looks like lawless combat. This time, the Stewards judged that Huff was responsible for an avoidable contact with Farfus and gave a drive through penalty to the Briton. The black flag was duly shown to him but he continued to lead the field.

On Lap 4, the recovering Brazilian managed to overtake Coronel to move up to third. Then, Huff finally came in to the pit lane to serve the penalty only on Lap 10, so now Menu took over the lead position and Farfus followed.

On the race track which BMW cars has traditionally had incredible winning record, Farfus pushed Menu very hard and the tail-to-nose battle lasted until the checkered flag fell but the Swiss in a strong Chevrolet Cruze managed to fend it off to score his first win of the season. This was also the first ever victory for the American marque in Oschersleben.

In the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class, a Japanese driver, Yukinori Taniguchi, made his first appearance this year in a Bamboo Racing's Chevrolet Lacetti. He started from the 19th grid and steered clear of the first lap turmoil to move up to 15th. However, in the aftermath of contact with Andrei Romanov's BMW, he spun on the spot on Lap 3. Taniguchi was fortunate enough to be able to continue but had to settle for finishing in 17th overall.

The Independent class was won by Kristian Poulsen in a BMW. The fastest qualifier in the class, Stefano D'aste, lost a lot of ground on Lap 2 and Sergio Hernandez took over the lead, followed by Poulsen. The Dane pushed really hard to reverse their positions and finally made a successful move at the final corner on Lap 8 to secure his third victory of the season, following the wins in the Belgium and Czech rounds.

For the starting grids of Race 2, the eighth place finisher in the first race, Norbert Michelisz was given the pole position, followed by Michel Nykjaer and Priaulx.

Making the most of standing start in which rear wheel drive cars like BMWs have a theoretical advantage, Priaulx made a splendid getaway when the red signals went out and passed by the two SEATs started from the front row well before the first corner to take the lead. His teammate, Farfus, also made a good start from the seventh grid and was already in fourth when he entered Turn 1.

Taking control of the race immediately after the start, Priaulx just pulled away lap after lap and was building a comfortable gap. Behind the leading BMW, Tiago Monteiro bumped Nykjaer's SEAT during the fight for the second and the Portuguese was given a drive through penalty for the incident. Meanwhile, the man from Guernsey was leading the race with complete indifference to what was happening behind him.

Eventually, Priaulx was never threatened for the lead position by anyone until the checkered flag fell and scored his sixth win of the season. He was followed by Farfus who moved up to second between Lap 4 and 6, thanks to another incident Monteiro had with Michelisz and serving the penalty, which created a BMW's one two finish.

Yvan Muller finished third and kept his lead position in the championship with two third place finishes during the day. On the other hand, Tarquini started Race 2 from the back of the grids because of his retirement in the first race and only completed the race in ninth. As a result, the Italian slipped down to third in the standings and now Priaulx is in second by an 11 point gap with the championship leader.

Poulsen made a double win in the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class with a solid sixth place finish overall. Taniguchi bettered his finishing position to 14th from 17th in Race 1 and was fourth in the independent class which was a creditable showing, considering his two year absence from the series.