After the curtain raiser in Brazil in March, the FIA World Touring Car championship traveled from South America to Africa where the Moroccan round was held and then returned to Europe to start the series of races in the continent with the Italian round in May. This Spanish round in Valencia was the closing event of the European leg.

Race 1 began with a rolling start as usual and the pole sitter, Gabriele Tarquini, duly led the race with three Chevrolet drivers, Rob Huff, Yvan Muller and Alan Menu, following behind. Then the pair of Tarquini's teammates at SEAT, Jordi Gene and Tiago Monteiro, chased after the Chevrolets in formation.

Wishing to earn as many points as possible for his championship hope, Andy Priaulx made a good start and moved up to seventh when he went through the first corner. But it wasn't easy for him to gain more positions and he completed the opening lap in the same place.

As the race was reaching to the mid-point, on Lap 6, there were some close battles between four drivers, then sixth placed Monteiro, Priaulx, Fredy Barth and August Farfus, which attracted the spectators' attention. With the intent of getting the eighth place and the pole position of the Race 2's reversed grid, Farfus tried to squeeze the front end of his BMW 320si into the inside of Barth's SEAT Leon TDi at the final corner but to no avail.

Then the battles became hotter on the following lap. Priaulx put heavy pressure on Monteiro on Turn 6, with a few physical contacts during the process, and managed to get ahead of the Portuguese on Turn 7 to move up to sixth, after a side-by-side run on the straightaway between the two corners. On the same lap, Farfus attacked against Barth again on Turn 13. Although they didn't give up an inch, they each ran in parallel until the next and final corner, the Brazilian beat the SEAT driver and took up the eighth place.

On Lap 8, however, Barth began a furious counterattack. Repeated contacts between their cars caused damage on the right-hand side of Farfus's rear bumper and his BMW started to emit white smoke, as the bumper came loose and touched a rear wheel. Then Barth dived into the inside of Farfus in Turn 8, a long left-hander, but they contacted hard on their sides in the next corner. The Brazilian's car was flicked off to the outside of the corner and lost a lot of ground.

While there were many fights for positions behind him, Tarquini was never threatened by anyone and easily led throughout the race until the finish. This was his first victory in seven races since he won the second race of Portuguese round.

The star of YOKOHAMA Independents' Trophy class was Marc Carol who drove a petrol engined SEAT. The 25 year old Spaniard was given the opportunity to compete in this event as a reward for winning last year's SEAT Leon Super Copa series, five years after his first appearance in the world championship.

Carol displayed a splendid performance on his home soil. After surviving early turmoil, he caught up with Kristian Poulsen who was leading the class and even overtook the Dane's BMW once on Lap 9. Although Poulsen regained the lead on the following lap and eventually secured his fourth class win, the local youngster's exciting performance was greeted with cheers by a huge crowd of spectators.

It was Menu who sat on the pole position for Race 2, followed by Barth and Monteiro. Priaulx whose BMW had theoretical advantage in a standing start was placed on the fourth grid but his teammate Farfus had to start the race from the 18th.

When the red signals blacked out, Menu's getaway wasn't very good and Barth got ahead of him. Priaulx made the most of his rear wheel drive car's traction and moved up to second in the first corner, while Menu dropped down to fourth. The recovering Swiss closed in on the back of Priaulx's BMW, which was running in third after being passed by Monteiro, and then hit it hard in Turn 4! This caused Menu to spin and lose a lot of positions, while the BMW driver was able to keep his car on the track. At the same time, Monteiro managed to overtake Barth from the inside of Turn 5 and took the lead position.

Muller also made a great start from the sixth grid. After gaining a few positions in the first and second corners, the Frenchman benefited from the contact between Menu and Priaulx and completed the first lap in third, just behind Barth.

The leading cars settled in their positions for a while but Tarquini made a move on Priaulx running in fourth on Lap 5 and got ahead of the Guernseyman. And Gene took the advantage of his teammate's move and also overtook Priaulx after some pushing and shoving between them. Being beaten by two SEATs in a short time, now the BMW driver dropped down to sixth.

On the following lap, Muller began to push the second placed Barth very hard. At the end of the lap, they crossed the control line with just a 0.344 second gap and the championship leader still continued to put pressure on the Swiss rookie. When they entered into Turn 2, Barth suddenly went sideways, which allowed Muller to pass through and take over the second place. Barth seemed to have a mechanical problem and brought his car back to the garage only to retire the race.

In the closing stage, the fight for third grew intense. After moving up to fourth on Lap 9, Priaulx made a move on Tarquini in the final corner of Lap 12 and overtook the Italian once. But the SEAT driver managed to regain the position on the following straightaway.

As the checkered flag fell, Monteiro won the final race of the European leg. By finishing in second, the championship leader, Muller, claimed the fourth consecutive podium finish in as many races, starting from Race 1 of the previous German round. Tarquini secured the final spot on the podium after the fierce battle with Priaulx.

As for YOKOHAMA Independents' Trophy, Poulsen finished in tenth overall and made a double in the class. He is now only 31 points behind the class championship leader, Sergio Hernandez.