The ninth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship kicked off at Autodromo di Monza, Italy, which was honored to be the venue of the season opening round for the second consecutive year. European countries had been hit by cold weather and had heavy snow fall here and there on Monday during the race week, which impacted a few motor sport events in the same weekend, including the first round of the German VLN (the endurance racing championship at the Nurburgring) series which had to be cancelled. Nevertheless, the WTCC event at Monza was held as scheduled, even though there was still lingering snow in shaded areas alongside the track, and the 2013 curtain raiser began with the two free practice and a qualifying sessions on Saturday.

The field of the season opener consisted of 25 cars. While Chevrolet had ended its full factory program at the end of last year, Honda entered two factory cars along with Zengo Motorsport which runs another Civic for a YOKOHAMA Trophy contender, Norbert Michelisz, who had driven a BMW in the past seasons. Plus, Munnich Motorsport began its WTCC campaign with three SEAT Leon WTCCs. So, with some leading drivers having moved to different teams, there were a lot of notable topics at the first round of the season.

The fastest driver in both of the two practice sessions was Yvan Muller who drove a Chevrolet Cruze that he knows very well. The car was now run by RML, not in the guise of the Chevrolet's factory team, but the British team had been the operating organization for the American manufacturer's official program. So they have plenty of knowledge about their cars and, with an expert such as Muller at the wheel, one of the strongest car-driver combination secured the pole position after clocking the fastest qualifying times both in Q1 and Q2. His new teammate and ex-Ford driver, Tom Chilton, ended the session in second with the time that was 0.859 seconds shy of the Frenchman, completing the all RML front row.

The third grid was taken by a YOKOHAMA Trophy driver, Alex MacDowall, in a bamboo-engineering run Chevrolet Cruze, followed by Pepe Oriola driving a SEAT Leon, and these four drivers broke the lap record for the WTCC cars in this ultra-fast Italian circuit until last year. It is true that the cars are always getting faster but, in this particular occasion, the partly renewed track surfaces seemed to contribute the better qualifying times. Because of the improved surfaces from the last corner to the pit straight, the exit speed of the cars were clearly faster, which resulted in the faster top speed on the straightaway.

On the race day, the track was wetted with cold rain. The air/surface temperatures were only 7/9 degrees Celsius at the time to start Race 1. Therefore, the first race of the eighth season for Yokohama Tire as the WTCC's sole tire supplier got underway with all cars using the company's wet tires. And because of the track conditions, the race director decided to start the race behind the Safety Car and to add one more lap to the originally planned 10 lap race.

With the Safety Car leading the field for only one lap, the proper racing began from Lap 2. The leading drivers carefully went through the first chicane and there was no position change among them. On the opposite end of the field, however, the reigning world champion, Robert Huff driving one of Munnich team's SEAT Leons this year, was mounting a charge from the back of the grid. He had an accident in the qualifying session and didn't set a time but was allowed to join the race from the last grid. The Briton already moved up to 11th at the end of Lap 5.

Starting from the ninth grid, Gabriele Tarquini in one of the factory run Honda Civic also performed well under the difficult conditions and, on Lap 4, snatched the sixth place from Marc Basseng who was at the wheel of another Munnich Motorsport's SEAT. But the German who won the FIA GT1 championship title last year didn't give in without a fight. They went through the long straightaway of Monza side by side and came to the first corner of the next lap. Hitting the curb slightly too hard there, Tarquini almost lost the control of his car and Basseng tried to squeeze his car into the inside of the Italian's Honda but Tarquini narrowly managed to close the door just before allowing the German to get in. Then, they had to cease fire because Stefano D'Aste's crash required the Safety Car to come out.

The racing resumed on Lap 7 - and the race was extended again to 12 laps. The three leading Chevrolets still kept their order from the opening lap and now began to pull away from the rest of the field. On the other hand, Tarquini continued his pursuit and moved up to fifth on this lap by overtaking James Nash's Chevrolet. Further behind him, Huff was now running in ninth.

Tarquini eventually got ahead of Oriola who had double duty this weekend, as he also raced in the supporting European Touring Car Championship event and won it, but the Honda driver's effort just fell short of the podium finish. As there was no drama in the leading pack, Muller won the first race of the season from the pole position and Chilton finished in second to accomplish the RML's one-two. The remaining place on the podium also went to another Chevrolet driver, MacDowall, who won the YOKOHAMA Trophy class.

The top ten grids for Race 2 were decided by the reverse order of Q2, so the pole position was given to Darylle O'Young who drives one of ROAL Motorsport's run BMWs this year. James Thompson in a factory prepared Lada Granta was supposed to take the second grid but he had to withdraw from the races on Sunday due to heavy damage to his car cause by the collision with his teammate during the qualifying session. The vacancy was filled by Basseng who was eighth fastest in Q2.

Although the rear wheel drive cars such as BMW 320 TC have theoretical advantage in the standing start that are employed in Race 2, it was Tarquini's Honda that made much better getaway than any other car on the wet track. When the red signals went off, he rocketed from the fifth grid on the outside and then steered to the inside of the track, quickly closing the gap with O'Young. Just keeping the Italian behind him, the Hong Kong resident went through Turn 1 as the race leader but Tarquini got better acceleration upon exiting the corner and passed O'Young on their way to Turn 2. Then, Basseng who made a below-par start, Michel Nykjaer driving a Chevrolet Cruze this year and Muller followed Tarquini's path and the German began his pursuit to make up for his defeat against the Honda driver in Race 1, with two Chevrolets behind him.

However, on Lap 4, Basseng made a small mistake at the exit of Turn 1 and Muller didn't overlook the opportunity. The Frenchman just got through a narrow space available to pass the German's SEAT and, soon after that, started to put pressure on Tarquini who didn't have enough speed to pull away. The decisive moment came at Turn 10 on the same lap, as Muller overtook the Italian and grabbed the lead position.

With the clear track ahead of him, Muller began to expand the gap with Tarquini and it grew from 0.391 seconds at the end of Lap 4 to 2.435 seconds on the next lap and then to 3.476 seconds one lap later.

On Lap 6, Basseng made a mistake again when he was going into Turn 1 and had to use the escape road, which resulted in handing third place to Nykjaer. Now it's the Dane's turn putting pressure on straggling Tarquini, while Basseng came back to the track and closely followed Nykjaer. On the next lap, the Chevrolet driver once managed to get ahead of Tarquini but the Italian hit back utilizing his Civic's better acceleration on the straightaway. Their fierce side by side battle continued for a while during the lap but Nykjaer passed Tarquini at Ascari again and never gave away the second place for the rest of the race.

Staying ahead of the fight for second, Muller led the race relatively at ease until the checkered flag fell and made a double win at Monza, just as he had done in the last year's season opener on the same track. Nykjaer finished in second and won the YOKOHAMA Trophy class. Tarquini followed in third, bringing a podium finish to the factory Honda team.

As mentioned in the race report, Monza had the track resurfacing work from just before the last corner to the pit straight. The higher grip level provided by the new surface certainly contributed the faster lap times in general. The cars were also improved during the winter, so the top four drivers in the qualifying session broke the previous lap record but the ADVAN racing tires were capable of dealing with the higher load caused by the faster pace without any problem.

The other sections of the legendary Italian track still have old surfaces that have relatively low friction coefficient even when they are completely dry. The races in this event were run on the wet track and, in general, the front wheel drive cars seemed to have certain advantage because of the conditions.

During Race 2 in which Tarquini's Civic finished in third, the rain became a little heavier than in the first race. Honda team might have little experience of testing on wet surfaces but their new cars seemed to have better traction than the last year's model, as their good acceleration at start and corner exiting speed were noticeable.