The month of September came and the summer break of the 2011 FIA World Touring Car Championship had ended. This Spanish round at Circuit Ricard Tormo Valencia marked the first of the final four events in which both Drivers' and Manufacturers' titles and YOKOHAMA trophy should be hotly fought.

After this race meeting in Spain, the championship will enter its Asian leg, consisting of Japan, China and Macau rounds. As the Japanese round has moved from Okayama to Suzuka this year and the inaugural Chinese event is to be held at Guangdong International Circuit, the two from remaining three rounds will be new to the WTCC teams, with the exception of a street track in Macau which has been a regular fixture as the final round of the championship.

In contrast, the race track of Valencia is one of the familiar places for the drivers and teams because it has been included in the calendar since the championship's very first season in 2005. So everyone must have hoped to attain solid results in this final round of European leg, before heading to somewhat unknown territories.

Gabriele Tarquini was the fastest driver in the first qualifying session on Saturday. On the SEAT's home soil, the Italian made the most of the Spanish manufacturer's 1.6 liter petrol turbo charged engine, which had been introduced in the middle of this season. As for the Spanish drivers, Javier Villa Garcia in one of Proteam Racing's BMW 320TCs qualified in seventh and went on to the second session. But another local star, Pepe Oriola, just failed to get into the top 10 of Q1, as he was demoted to 11th in the closing minutes of the session, being knocked out by Franz Engstler. Thus, a winner of the last German round was to start Race 2 on Sunday from the pole position.

However, the second session was dominated by Chevrolet drivers, after some bruising time attacks by Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Tarquini. Eventually, the Frenchman set the fastest time and Huff followed to complete the all Chevrolet front row for Race 1.

On Sunday, the first race of the day began under the clear sky. At the rolling start after a formation lap, Tarquini starting from third made the best getaway and juxtaposed to the two Chevrolets on the front row from the inside. And the Italian won this first battle for the lead position for now.

Behind them, another Chevrolet driver, Alan Menu who started from the sixth grid, was racing for fourth with Tiago Monteiro but the Swiss was hit by the SEAT driver on Lap 2 and, as a result of bouncing action, Menu's Chevrolet Cruze made contact with Huff's sister car. The poor Briton spun on the spot and lost a lot of ground.

Consequently, the race became a duel between the early leader, Tarquini, and Muller in pursuit of him but it was settled sooner than later. At Turn 2 of Lap 4, the Chevrolet driver easily overtook Tarquini and the Italian's engine misfired later, which ultimately led to retirement at the end of Lap 10. After taking the lead, Muller went way ahead of the rest of field and easily cruised through the remaining laps. The Frenchman's 19th victory in his WTCC career pushed him to the new championship leader with 308 points, as Huff finished the race in fifth and his points tally only grew to 299.

Kristian Poulsen won YOKOHAMA Trophy by finishing in fourth overall, just one place shy of the podium celebration, after fending off the pursuit of a local ace, Villa.

On the starting grid for Race 2, there were two BMWs on the front row, Engstler on the pole position and Tom Coronel beside him. Given the theoretical advantage of rear wheel drive cars in standing start format which has been adopted for the second race, these two drivers were in the best position to lead the second race of the day, though it wasn't the case for Engstler. When the field came back to the grids after a formation lap, the red signals turned on and then blacked out, with the collective exhaust note reaching its climax, but the German's engine just stalled on the spot and he was sucked into the field.

This gave Coronel the unlabored lead position, followed by Villa who started from the fourth grid. With Norbert Michelisz running in third after an amazing getaway from the eighth grid, the race began with all BMW top three leading it.

On the other hand, the Chevrolet drivers steadily moved up through the field and the trio, Muller in fourth with Huff and Menu following in a single file, was in pursuit of the leaders on Lap 4. However, it wasn't easy for them this time to break the stalemated situation. The race now entered its closing stage and it looked the American manufacturer was unlikely to get a podium place, until an accident happened during Lap 10.

Villa had been putting heavy pressure on Coronel and finally found a narrow space to overtake the Dutchman at Turn 2 on the lap. But Coronel tried to regain the lead at Turn 4 and placed his car on the inside for the corner, the right hand side of Villa's BMW 320TC. And when the Spaniard began to turn in for the right-hander and closed the door, the inevitable happened. Villa was hit by Coronel and spun off to a gravel bed on the outside where he had to end his race. Coronel also lost the control of his car and spun on the spot, which gave away the lead position to Muller.

Now Michelisz was running in second, followed by other two Chevrolets, Huff and Menu. For the next three laps, Huff kept putting pressure on the Hungarian, while the latter was watching for a chance to get ahead of Muller. Then they entered the final lap and Michelisz decided to go for it and dove to the inside of the race leader at the last corner before the checkered flag.

Watching the live TV monitor, the crew at Michelisz's pit caught their breath at that moment. However, his brave move ended up with a spin and the two Chevrolets went by. While the Michelisz's crew could only cast their eyes heavenward, the people at Chevrolet pits were jubilant for the unexpected sixth 1-2-3 finish of the season.

As a result, Chevrolet secured the second consecutive manufacturers' title and now only its three drivers have the possibility of winning the drivers' championship, as the series was heading for the concluding Asian leg.

The YOKOHAMA Trophy was won by Poulsen again, as he had passed by spinning Michelisz at the last corner. With this double victory in Spain, he became the championship leader with a four point gap to Michelisz.