After a sojourn in the African continent for the Moroccan round, the FIA World Touring Car Championship came back to Europe for the third event of the season at Slovakia Ring, Slovakia.

The Slovakian race track came into service in 2009 and, with the track length of 5,922m, it is the longest permanent circuit among those hosting a WTCC event this year. As one would expect from a newly-opened, state-of-the-art international race circuit, the track is very wide, being accompanied by extensive run-off areas. So it certainly is one of the proper venues for the world championship races, while this second consecutive year was the only second time for WTCC to visit Slovakia Ring.

From this third round of the championship, the Compensation Weights rules were applied. According to the rules that adjust the minimum weight of each car model, based on the actual lap times during the previous events, Chevrolet Cruze had to carry extra 40kg weights for this event, while Honda Civic and SEAT Leon remained in the same minimum weights from the last round. For BMW 320 TC and Lada Granta, the cars' minimum weights were reduced by 20kg.

With the ambient temperature at 21 degrees Celsius - exactly same as that of last year's meeting held in the last weekend of April, as was the case again this year, the first of the two Free Practice sessions got underway. The dominant car during these sessions was Honda Civic that had claimed its first pole position in the Moroccan round by the hands of Gabriele Tarquini. After staying at the top of time sheets for the FP sessions, the Italian kept up the momentum in the Qualifying session and clocked 2'10"308 which was the fastest of all in Q1, followed by his Honda teammate, Tiago Monteiro, who set the time of 2'10"907.

Among the 12 survivors for Q2, the Honda drivers were clearly the fastest ones on the track. Tarquini put himself at the top once again with 2'10"773, which was a little slower than his best time in Q1 though, and Monteiro followed in second, being shy of a tenth second from the fastest man. Norbert Michelisz in another Civic run by Zengo Motorsport also came in third with 2'10"889 and rounded out a Honda 1-2-3 in the qualifying session. Yvan Muller in a RML Chevrolet Cruze ended the session in fourth by setting 2'10"941 and he was the last one among the drivers who set the qualifying time that was less than 131 seconds.

Tarquini's best lap time in Q1, 2'10"308, was remarkable because it was 2.682 seconds faster than last year's fastest qualifying time, 2'12"990, that Michelisz had set with his BMW. The fact certainly reflected the recent improvement of the Civic, including the new exhaust system.

On Sunday, April 28th, the time to start Race 1 came, following the warm-up session in the morning. The weather was quite warm and comfortable, with the air/surface temperatures at 23.3/42.2 degrees. The first race of the day began with a rolling start, led by the three Honda Civics.

When the field rushed into Turn 1, Muller tried to threaten the Michelisz's position but the Frenchman couldn't find his way to break into the pack of Honda drivers, so Tarquini, Monteiro and Michelisz went through the first corner safely and kept their positions.

But behind the leaders, there was a collision between Tom Chilton in another RML Chevrolet, starting from the fifth grid, and Fredy Barth in a BMW, as the latter made a very good start from the 14 th grid. As a result, Chilton was thrown off the track and then had to park his car in a gravel bed. For the Briton's team crew, this was a very disappointing way to end the race because they had made a huge effort to repair the car that Chilton crashed heavily on his own in the warm-up session...

The reigning champion Robert Huff, driving a Munnich Motorsport run SEAT Leon this year, started the race from the 17th grid because he was given a ten place grid penalty for a technical infringement - his car's ground clearance was found to be less than the required minimum dimension - after being qualified in seventh. Huff was in hot pursuit to make it up and, on Lap 3, he got involved in the side-by-side battle with James Thompson's Lada Granta. The SEAT driver once got ahead of his fellow countryman but couldn't pull away from him when they entered Lap 4. However, Huff seemed to be a little too optimistic when he approached Turn 1 and he made a mistake which resulted in going off the track and handing back his hard-earned position to Thompson!

Then the battle for fifth between James Nash and Tom Coronel became hotter in the middle stage of the race. Their dogfight continued for several laps but it was settled on Lap 8 when Coronel made a decisive move and passed the Chevrolet driver.

With no regard to such battles behind them, the three Honda drivers remained in the dominant positions and Muller, running in fourth, wasn't able to threaten them after his attempt at the first corner of the race. On Lap 8, Michelisz tried to make a move against Monteiro, when the Portuguese ran wide slightly, to no avail but there was no serious fight between the leading drivers otherwise. Eventually, the top three didn't change their positions throughout the race and crossed the finish line in the order that they started with.

Tarquini brought back the Honda Civic's maiden victory in its eleventh race, after making debut to the championship in the Japanese round last year. Monteiro and Michelisz followed him in second and third, confirming the superior performance of their cars in this Slovakian round with a podium lockout. Nash stayed away from the pursuit of Michel Nykjaer and the bamboo-engineering teammate Alex MacDowall to claim the YOKOHAMA Trophy class win for the second consecutive race, as the Briton had won it in Race 2 at Marrakech.

Only half an hour after the emotional moment that the Japanese anthem was played at the podium ceremony for Honda's maiden victory, the competitors began to take their cars to the starting grids for the second race of the day. For the standing start of Race 2, Coronel sat on the pole position, sharing the front row with Pepe Oriola in a SEAT Leon. The young Spaniard was keen to beat Coronel at the start to repeat his first ever overall victory in the Moroccan round but the Dutchman's BMW has a theoretical advantage in a standing start...

As the red signals blacked out, the field left the grids with roaring exhaust noise and went into the first corner. Coronel managed to keep the lead position through the corner, followed by Oriola, but then Huff was in third by getting ahead of Nash who started the race in third. Moreover, Monteiro made a far better getaway than any others from the ninth grid and already moved up to fourth! In contrast, Nykjaer's Chevrolet Cruze stalled on the 12th grid at the start but, fortunately, his stranded car didn't cause any messing up among the drivers behind him.

On Lap 2, there was slight contact at Turn 1 between Monteiro and Muller who had gained two positions after starting from the seventh grid. In the wake of this, the Honda driver went sideways for a moment and dropped to seventh, as this allowed a few drivers including Tarquini to pass him.

Muller, now in fourth, then started to attack Huff in front of him and the ex-teammates at Chevrolet, who had fought each other for the championship last year, began a breathtaking battle. On Lap 3, the Frenchman wove his car behind the Huff's SEAT Leon on the approach to Turn 1 but the Briton fended off the pressure. After repeatedly trying to squeeze his car into the inside of a corner through the infield section of the lap, Muller finally managed to come abreast of Huff on the pit straight and made a successful move at Turn 1 on the next lap. But the SEAT driver didn't give up easily and hit back at Turn 2 to regain the position. The spectators were fascinated by the fierce but clean fight between the WTCC champions.

Behind them, Tarquini moved up to fifth already on Lap 2, despite that the Italian veteran started the race from the tenth grid, and was watching for the opportunity to join the fight for podium. And when the race reached its halfway point, on Lap 6, there were position changes among those leading drivers, as Oriola in second ran wide at Turn 2, allowing a pack of four drivers led by Huff to pass in a moment!

The battle between Huff and Muller, now for second, finally decided on the penultimate lap. They went through the pit straight side-by-side and then the Frenchman quickly flicked his car from the outside to the inside at Turn 1. Under the heavy pressure, Huff made a small mistake to leave a space inside of him and not only Muller but Tarquini as well didn't look over it.

As the drivers behind him were busy for their own battles, the race leading Coronel could enjoy a relatively peaceful drive until the checkered flag fell and claimed the first win since the Japanese round last year. This was also the first victory of the season for BMW. Muller finished in second and the winner of Race 1, Tarquini, got on the podium for the second time in this afternoon, by finishing in third.

Regarding the YOKOHAMA Trophy class, MacDowall beat Mehdi Bennani and Darryl O'Young to score his second win of the season by finishing eighth overall.

Slovakia Ring was built to the latest international standard. Therefore, the track is wide and sufficient run off areas are provided along with it. The facilities are also very good and modern. The average speed around the track is relatively high but the surfaces of pavement are coarse and the asphalt seems to have larger amount of aggregate. As a result, the grip level of the asphalt surface itself isn't very high. In this particular weekend of the event, the weather was fine but strong wind kicked up the dust that was brought in onto the track by the cars cutting the inside edge of corners.

In terms of tire wear, Slovakia Ring is one of the toughest race tracks. Because, in addition to the above mentioned track surface characteristics, two inside tires tend to be dragged for a long time of period when the car is going through several long corners, which led to a high wear rate. However, the Yokohama Tire's products performed well even under such severe conditions and there was no tire-induced problem at all throughout the race weekend.

The most significant topic about this Slovakian round was the Honda Civic's maiden victory and podium lockout. Gabriele Tarquini's fastest lap time in the qualifying session was 2.682 seconds faster than that of last year's meeting and the fact shows how fast the manufacturer team's progress in their car development work. On the other hand, Tom Coronel in a BMW 320 TC scored a long-absent win in Race 2. This could be considered as another proof of the versatility of Yokohama's WTCC tires because the two completely different types of cars - especially in their drive system - could win a race each with identical tires.