The 2011 FIA World Touring Car Championship's last stop was the legendary Macau Grand Prix again this year. The showdown battle for the drivers' championship on this challenging 6.1km temporary street track attracted much attention from motor sport fans all over the world.

The drivers' title was fought between the reigning champion Yvan Muller and his Chevrolet teammate, Robert Huff, as they were the only drivers who had a chance to clinch the title when they had headed for this final round. Muller's point advantage was just 20 points, so the championship battle was still very open. Because overtaking on this street track wasn't easy, being qualified in better grid positions was all important.

In Qualifying 1, Alan Menu had an on-track incident with Andre Couto, who made a one off appearance in this event in one of Sunred SR Leons, and the Chevrolet driver failed to advance to the second session, as he wasn't able to improve his position from lowly 13th. Robert Dahlgren in Volvo C30 Drive topped the first session and went on to Q2 with other nine drivers, namely Darryl O'Young, Muller, Couto, Mehdi Bennani, Gabriele Tarquini, Tom Coronel, Huff, Michel Nykjaer and Franz Engstler.

The 15 minute Q2 session decided the starting grids for Race 1. Five minutes into the session, Dahlgren heavily crashed at Paiol bend on his own. The front end of his car was badly damaged - even flamed briefly - and a lot of oil from his car spread on the track. Because of this, the session was stopped for 25 minutes and was started again as a full 15 minute qualifying session.

The resumed session saw a fierce exchange of on-the-limit time attacks between Muller and Huff in front of a huge crowd. After a cycle of beating the rival's fastest time each other, the battle ended with Huff's fastest at 2'30"881 - he was the only driver who got into a 2'30" bracket - which gave him the fourth pole position of the season. This meant the Briton sat on the pole in Macau for three consecutive years and the two championship contenders were to start Race 1 from the front row.

The formation lap for Race 1 got underway on Sunday under the slightly overcast sky. The track surfaces were totally dry but there were dusty spots from here and there. The field went through the mountain section and came back to the ocean side and formed a double file after Fisherman's bend to be ready for the rolling start. As they marched on the straightaway in a controlled pace, the red signals went off. Now the race was on and all cars began maximum acceleration. Driving through Mandalin and into Lisboa, Huff didn't give the slightest chance to jump at to Muller and led the field when they went on to the mountain section.

But the first of several accidents happened behind them. Couto spun at Mandalin and crashed into the guard rails. His car halted on the track, pointing the wrong way round, and poor Menu came across this and hit the wreck "head to head." Menu's Chevrolet was stranded on the spot because the car's suspension was badly damaged and the intervention of the Safety Car was required for the track clearing work.

The race resumed on Lap 5 but it didn't last long. Immediately after the re-start, O'Young and Bennani approached Lisboa, banging the cars each other, and the former lost the control of his car and crashed into the barrier. The Hong Kong resident's Chevrolet stalled there, blocking a half of the track width, which caused another Safety Car period.

The race resumed again on Lap 8 and, according to the WTCC rules, it was extended from the original race distance, 9 laps, to 11 but remaining laps were limited anyway. After the second re-start, Muller began to put heavy pressure on the race leading Huff by weaving his car everywhere but the Briton stayed cool and firmly kept his position in his happy hunting ground.

On Lap 9, Aleksei Dudukalo crashed at Moorish Hill on his own. This time, however, the Safety Car didn't come out and the race was on with yellow flags for the troubled section. At the end of the lap, the gap between the top two was just 0.366 seconds. Muller had a good acceleration through Mandalin and came almost abreast with Huff from the outside when they were approaching to Lisboa but it wasn't enough to get ahead of his teammate.

Eventually, Huff got on the highest place of the podium for four years running and reduced the point deficit to Muller, who finished in second, to a mere 13 points. The YOKOHAMA Trophy was won by Nykjaer who started the race from the eighth grid. But his fifth win of the season wasn't enough to prevent Kristian Poulsen from clinching the championship title with the third place finish in the class and the seventh overall.

Having kept his title hopes alive by winning the first race, Huff sat on the third grid for Race 2, while Muller was starting the race from the eighth. From the result of Q1, the pole position was given to Engstler and Nykjaer was beside him on the front row.

At the standing start for the race, Coronel made a splendid getaway from the fourth grid when the red signals blacked out. The Dutchman once steered to the left but his path was blocked by Nykjaer in front of him. Then he found a space in the center of the track and passed three cars in one move to take the lead of the field. The pole sitting Engstler was sucked in the pack due to a slow start and Huff was running in third when they entered the mountain section.

Aiming at the title crown, and a double race win on the way for it, Huff drove with strong bravery and, surprisingly, overtook Nykjaer just before the Police bend from the inside with slight physical contact. Now he was in second and began to pursuit the race leader, Coronel. Meanwhile, Muller also gained some position during the opening lap and was running in fifth.

Huff completed Lap 2 faster than anyone else and rapidly closed in on the back of Coronel on the straightaway of the next lap. Then the Chevrolet driver took the outside line after Mandalin and overtook the Dutchman easily well before entering Lisboa, benefiting from the strong acceleration of his car. On the other hand, Muller moved up to fourth by passing Bennani.

However, the Safety Car came out again due to a back marker's crash at Mandalin on the lap. At that time, Huff and Muller were equal in championship points and the number of victories but, had they remained in their positions until the finish, the title would have gone to the Frenchman because he had more second place finishes during the season.

Therefore, now the major focus was where Muller would finish the race. When the racing resumed on Lap 6, the reigning champion immediately began to put pressure on Nykjaer who was in third. On Lap 8, Muller made the first attempt to pass the SEAT driver from the exit of Mandalin to the entry of Lisboa but without success. Obviously, he didn't need to take any unnecessary risk.

But, in the final sector of the lap, Muller closely followed behind Nykjaer from Fisherman's bend to "R" bend, carrying a bit more speed than the lap before onto the straightaway. Then the Chevrolet driver benefited from the slip stream of Nykjaer on his way to Mandalin and moved up to third from the inside at the bend.

At the end of the day, Huff won the second race and scored the second double for him since he had made it at Monza earlier this year. But Muller won the back to back drivers' championship title by finishing the race in third. This was the third WTCC driver's title crown for him, as he had also been crowned in 2008 with SEAT. The scene of prize giving on the podium was the epitome of the season that Chevrolet and Muller triumphed.