The FIA World Touring Car Championship, which is regarded as the top level series of touring car sprint races, raised the curtain of the 2011 championship in Brazil again this year and the 20 world class drivers hotly fought at Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba.

The most significant rule change this year was the introduction of new power units, 1600cc turbo charged direct-injection petrol engines. They share the basic construction with the engines used in the FIA World Rally Championship. For this season opener, Chevrolet and BMW had prepared the cars with this type of unit.

At the same time, the existing 2000cc normally aspirated petrol engines and turbo diesel engines are still eligible for WTCC. Therefore, now all cars complying with the FIA's Super 2000 regulations are allowed to compete in the championship and these three types of engines were seen on the grids of this curtain raiser.

As it was last year, the qualifying session on Saturday was divided into two section and only top ten drivers in the first section (Qualifying 1) were allowed to run in the second one (Qualifying 2) which finally decided the starting grids for Race 1.

But there is a tweak in the way to decide the grids for Race 2 this year. Until the last season, the top eight finishers of the first race used to sit on the top eight grids for the second race in reversed order. From 2011, however, top ten qualifiers in QF1 are placed on the first ten grids for Race 2 in the same way.

The Chevrolet drivers were stunningly fast in the qualifying session. They dominated the top three slots in QF2 and Robert Huff won the seventh polo position in his WTCC career, followed by two of his teammates, Yvan Muller and a local boy, Carlos Bueno.

Huff's other teammate, Alan Menu, qualified in 11th in QF1 and, therefore, didn't run in GF2. But he was promoted up one place after the end of the session due to the penalty given to Fredy Barth who was ninth in QF2, thus the Swiss was handed the pole position for Race 2.

On Sunday morning, the sky above the track was overcast but it looked like there was little chance of rain. Just before the start of Race 1, a one minute silence was offered to mourn the victims of recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Race 1 got underway on schedule with a rolling start in which the whole field was led by the pace car go around the track and then begin racing when the green signal is given, without stopping again on the grids. The leading drivers kept their positions and went through the first corner.

Not surprisingly, the race was under control of the pole sitter, Huff, and other Chevrolet drivers. The Briton and his teammates, Muller and Bueno, were never threatened for their positions until the finish and made the favorable start of the season with a podium monopoly, repeating what they had done in the season opener last year. Particularly, the Brazilian's podium finish earned unstinted applause by his home crowd.

YOKOHAMA Trophy was won by Kristian Poulsen in a BMW 320 TC. He fought for fourth overall against Tom Coronel in the closing stage of the race and, even though he had to settle for fifth, his performance was still remarkable.

After a forty minute interval, Race 2 began. The second race of the day employed a standing start, as is usual, in which the stand still competitors make a getaway from their grids. In theory, the rear wheel drive (RWD) cars have a certain degree of advantage in this starting method because a part of car's weight is transferred to rear wheels - driving wheels of RWD cars - when the car begins to move forward and BMW 320 is the only RWD car in WTCC these years. Therefore, the cars to watch at the start of Race 2 were those from the German manufacturer and, especially, one driven by Coronel on the third grid.

Sure enough, the Dutch rocketed at the start and led the field. Starting alongside of him, from the fourth grid, Gabriele Tarquini in a SEAT Leon TDi utilized his car's 'diesel power' and completed the first lap in second.

But, on Lap 3, the Chevrolet drivers launched into an attack on these early leaders. To begin with, Menu took over the second place by passing Tarquini at Turn 2. On the next lap, Huff, Muller and Bueno followed his path and overtook the Italian, and now four Chevrolets were quickly narrowing the gap with Coronel's BMW.

Menu made an attack on Coronel at Turn 1 on Lap 6 but the BMW driver managed to defend his position in the meantime. However, Chevrolets were clearly faster than BMWs in Sector 3 which has a few fast corners and Coronel wasn't able to fend off the Swiss's second challenge on Lap 10 at the same corner. Now the pole sitter regained the leading position.

Menu stayed ahead for the remaining laps and contributed to Chevrolet's double victory in the Brazilian round. Coronel finished in second and Muller rounded up the podium finishers, after overtaking Huff on Lap 11.

The winner of YOKOHAMA Trophy in the second race was Javier Villa who drove Proteam Racing's BMW 320 TC. The 23 year old Spaniard is a rookie in WTCC but already has a strong background as Formula One test driver and GP2 winner. Now his future looks brighter after this victory.