The 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship raised its curtain at the legendary Autodromo di Monza in Italy. The partnership between the championship and Yokohama Rubber has now reached the seventh season. And one can expect even more excitement by new additios such as Ford, Lada and Honda even though the latter two will make only limited appearances this year.

The entry list of this season opener had 25 cars on it. The manufacturers' title holder, Chevrolet, retains the same drivers for its factory team, namely the reigning champion Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Alain Menu, with Rickard Rydell coming back to WTCC under the banner of Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden. SEAT tries to regain the championship crown with Leon WTCC's, which now have newly developed 1.6 liter turbo engines, in the hands of Gabriele Tarquini and others. BMW 320TC's are still very popular among the independent teams and drivers, including Tom Coronel who scored a win at Suzuka last year. With some young new comers added to the series' unique talents, it looks promising that a close championship fight throughout the season is ahead

As this was the season's very first event, two test sessions were held on Friday, prior to the usual official free practice sessions on Saturday. The Chevrolets were dominant and stayed at the top of time sheet in each session but Tarquini's SEAT was always there within reach to catch them. He was actually a close second fastest in both practice sessions and there was no doubt he had the potential to stop the Chevrolet's total domination.

And that potential turned to reality very soon. Tarquini squarely clocked the fastest lap time of Qualifying 1 which decides the top 12 drivers - instead of last year's 10 - who would advance to Q2, and then he beat Muller by a narrow margin of 0.059 seconds in the second section to secure the pole position for Race 1. Blocking Chevrolet's run of 14 pole positions, the Italian made a promising start of the season and earned five championship points, as the points are awarded to the top five drivers in Q2 this year.

The race day - March 11th, Sunday - was favored by good weather. In the morning warm up session, however, Darryl O'Young - who had moved from Bamboo-engineering to Special Tuning Racing team this year - endured a misfortune. His SEAT Leon caught a fire due to a mechanical problem and the Hong Kong resident was forced to be sidelined for the rest of the day.

As has been the case, the battle of Race 1 got underway with a rolling start. After a formation lap, the field led by Tarquini came back to the pit straight in double file. Still waiting for the black out of the red signal, Muller who shared the front row with Tarquini made a perfectly timed acceleration and became almost abreast with the pole sitter, as they were approaching the moment of start.

The signal seemed to go off slightly later than usual and Muller initially looked to gain the upper hand in all out acceleration. But now Tarquini displayed what his new engine was able to do and led the field through the first corner.

Behind them, there was some turmoil and, firstly, three cars halted just beyond Turn 1 in the aftermath of hitting each other's car. Then, fighting for third between teammates, Menu tangled with Huff after exiting Lesmo corner, which forced the Swiss to go off the track and lose some positions.

At the front, Tarquini was followed by Muller with just a few inches between them. The Frenchman made a move at the last corner of the opening lap and managed to get ahead of Tarquini's SEAT on the pit straight. But he then made a mistake in the braking area for Turn 1 and failed to turn into the corner. As a result, he had no choice but to cut through it, which meant he had to give way to Taruquini, because otherwise he might be given a penalty for unfairly defending his position by taking a short cut.

On Lap 3, however, Tarquini ran wide on his own at the chicane. It was too inviting an opportunity for Muller to pass up and he took over the lead position on the spot without difficulty. While there was a Safety Car period for two laps after that, the Chevrolet driver never let go of the commanding position for the remaining laps of the race and claimed victory. Tarquini lost to Huff in the battle for second later in the race but certainly proved the ability of SEAT's new engine by taking up the last podium place.

As for the fight for the YOKOHAMA Trophy, Aleksei Dudukalo overtook Pepe Oriola on Lap 4 and was leading the field until his engine had a problem in the closing stage of the race. As the Russian dropped out, the 17 year old Spaniard Oriola - the youngest driver ever in WTCC - regained the lead and eventually got on the top spot of the podium after displaying a superb performance.

Race 2 was ready to go in late afternoon, as the supporting events including the European Touring Car Championship races were held after Race 1. Since the top ten drivers in Q2 were placed in reversed order on the starting grids for Race 2, Norbert Michelisz's BMW sat on the pole position. The second grid was given to Dudukalo but his car failed to appear on the grids because it had a mechanical problem on his way to the grid and his race prematualy ended there.

At the standing start for Race 2, the rear wheel drive BMWs made better getaways than other car models as usual. In this particular occasion, Coronel had a great one from the fifth grid and jumped to second. So the race began with the German marque's one-two.

As Monza is the famous high speed track, the fierce exchanges of slip streaming on the pit straight were repeatedly seen. But, on Lap 2, such a close battle caused an accident at Turn 1. In the pack fighting for third, Muller hit Menu's sister car from behind and then the Frenchman momentarily lost the control of his car, which created a panic around him. As a result, all three factory Chevrolets went off the track or spun, involving an innocent victim, Tarquini's SEAT.

The Chevrolet trio was lucky enough to rejoin the race quickly with no apparent damage to their cars but Tarquini wasn't. Getting the short end, the local ace that performed very well in Race 1 was stranded on the spot and forced to end his race there.

During the next two laps, Coronel put heavy pressure on Michelisz to no avail, while the factory Chevrolets rapidly made up the lost ground and caught up to the leading duo. On Lap 6, the Hungarian narrowly defended his lead position when Muller and Coronel tried to pass him at Turn 1 from both sides of him, but the Dutchman lost his position to Muller during the move.

On the next lap, the reigning champion finally overtook Michelisz at Curva del Serraglio and, when the leading group went through Ascari, Menu, Coronel and Huff followed suit with no mercy for Michelisz. Two laps later, now Huff managed to pass Coronel at Turn 1 to complete the all Chevrolet top three. This order remained unchanged until the checkered flag fell and Muller accomplished a double with the champion's dignity, as he had done in Spain last year.

YOKOHAMA Trophy was won by a local boy, Stefano D'Aste. When he finished the race, the spectators at Monza gave generous applause to him and the Italian even stopped his car during the parade lap to answer them with some lively physical expression of his joy.