2010 World Touring Car Championship

2010 World Touring Car Championship

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The 2010 World Touring Car Championship season is the seventh season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the sixth since its 2005 return. It began with the Race of Brazil at Curitiba on March 7 and will end with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on November 21, after twenty-two races. The championship is open to both Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars.

A new points system has been introduced for the championship in 2010, in alignment with that used for both the Formula One World Championship and the World Rally Championship. The winner will receive 25 points, continuing with 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point for 10th place.

Teams and drivers

The full season entry list was released on February 19, 2010.

Team Car No. Drivers Class Rounds SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1 Gabriele Tarquini 1–8 2 Tom Coronel 1–8 3 Tiago Monteiro 1–8 4 Jordi Gené 1–8 Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 5 Norbert Michelisz R 1–8 Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 6 Yvan Muller 1–8 7 Robert Huff 1–8 8 Alain Menu 1–8 9 Carlos "Cacá" Bueno 6 35 Vincent Radermecker 4 BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 10 Augusto Farfus 1–8 11 Andy Priaulx 1–8 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si 15 Franz Engstler I 1–8 16 Andrei Romanov I 1–5, 7–8 42 Tim Coronel I 6 TBA Henry Ho I SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 17 Michel Nykjær R 1–8 SEAT León 2.0 TFSI 38 Tom Boardman I 6 SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 18 Fredy Barth R 1–8 bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti 19 Harry Vaulkhard I R 1–7 20 Darryl O'Young I R 1–8 72 Yukinori Taniguchi I 8 Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si 21 Mehdi Bennani I R 1–8 Čolak Racing SEAT León 2.0 TFSI 23 Marin Čolak I Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320si 24 Kristian Poulsen I 3–8 Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si 25 Sergio Hernández I 1–8 26 Stefano D'Aste I 1–8 33 Fabio Fabiani I 3, 7–8 TBA Kevin Chen I Exagon Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI 27 Pierre-Yves Corthals I 4 eBay Motors / WSR BMW 320si 29 Colin Turkington I 5–6 7 Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Lacetti 30 Ismaïl Sbaï I 2 31 Youssaf El Marnissi I 2 Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze LT 34 Leonel Pernía 3 Volvo Olsbergs Green Racing Volvo C30 41 Robert Dahlgren * 6

Icon Eligible for I Independents' Trophy R Rookie Challenge * Not eligible to score points

Team and driver changes

Chevrolet have replaced the retiring Nicola Larini in their three-car line-up with ex-SEAT Sport driver Yvan Muller. A fourth Chevrolet Cruze was entered in Italy for Leonel Pernía, with Nika Racing running the car under the Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden banner. Vincent Radermecker drove the car for the RML-run squad at the next race in Belgium, with Cacá Bueno driving it in the UK.

BMW Motorsport announced they were reducing their participation from a five-car team to a two-car team, with Augusto Farfus moving from BMW Team Germany to Team RBM to join Andy Priaulx. Former BMW Team Italy-Spain driver Alex Zanardi has retired from the series, while former BMW Team Germany driver Jörg Müller will race in the Le Mans Series with Schnitzer.

SEAT Sport have withdrawn from the series for 2010, but have helped to form a new team SR-Sport, for whom Independents champion Tom Coronel and ex-SEAT Sport drivers Jordi Gené, Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini will drive for.

Stefano D'Aste has returned to Scuderia Proteam Motorsport, for whom he raced in 2005, 2006 and 2008, moving from Wiechers-Sport. His seat has been taken by Mehdi Bennani, who moves from Exagon Engineering. D'Aste has been joined at Proteam by Sergio Hernández, who returns to Proteam from BMW Team Italy-Spain. Fabio Fabiani raced an additional car for the team at his home round in Italy, just as he did in 2009.

Andrei Romanov has rejoined the series and the Liqui Moly Team Engstler setup. He replaces Kristian Poulsen, who will race with his own Poulsen Motorsport team. Romanov could not drive at Brands Hatch for personal reasons, so was replaced by Tim Coronel.

Michel Nykjær has joined SUNRED Engineering after racing in the WTCC for Perfection Racing at the 2009 Race of Germany. He replaces Tom Boardman, who has returned to the British Touring Car Championship, driving for Special Tuning (UK). Boardman returned to the WTCC with SUNRED for his home round. Fredy Barth joined the team from the SEAT León Eurocup, racing under the SEAT Swiss Team by SUNRED banner. Zengő Dension Motorsport have joined the series, along with their driver, León Eurocup champion Norbert Michelisz, who drove the SUNRED prize car on two occasions – in 2008 and 2009.

British Touring Car team Bamboo Engineering have joined the WTCC, along with their driver Harry Vaulkhard. Darryl O'Young, who drove in the FIA GT Championship with Prospeed Competition in 2009, will be his teammate.

James Thompson, who drove for LADA Sport in 2009, was set to race at certain European rounds for Hartmann Racing, in addition to to campaigns in the Danish Touring Car Championship and European Touring Car Cup, but has now left the team. Lada have not returned for 2010.

SEAT's Rickard Rydell has elected to take a sabbatical from racing for the 2010 season. Instead, he will become a pundit for Viasat Motor's coverage of the Swedish Touring Car Championship.

Jaap van Lagen has returned to the Porsche Supercup, a series in which he finished seventh in 2008.

Without drives for 2010 are Lada's Kirill Ladygin, and Félix Porteiro, who drove for Proteam in 2009.

Maurer Motorsport were set to run three Chevrolet Lacettis at Marrakech for Moroccan racers Ismaïl Sbaï, Youssaf El Marnissi and Larbi Tadlaoui. Tadlaoui did not attend due to personal reasons, while El Marnissi crashed in the Friday test session.

Pierre-Yves Corthals made a one-off return to the series with his old team, Exagon Engineering, for his home round in Belgium.

Having been without a drive in any series, 2009 British Touring Car Champion Colin Turkington rejoined the series in Portugal with West Surrey Racing, with backing from eBay Motors.

Swedish championship team Polestar Racing and driver Robert Dahlgren raced once again at Brands Hatch, and will also race in Japan, in their nationally-homologated Volvo C30.

Calendar

A provisional calendar for the 2010 season was approved by the FIA World Council on 24 June 2009. The final calendar was published on 21 October 2009. The Race of Mexico at Autódromo Miguel E. Abed, Puebla, scheduled for April 11, was cancelled in March due to security fears in the region. Series organisers looked for a replacement race, but negotiations with interested event promoters did not meet with the championship’s logistic and promotional requirements, meaning the season was reduced to eleven rounds.

Round		Race Name	Track	Date
1	R1	Race of Brazil	Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba	March 7
	R2
2	R3	Race of Morocco	Marrakech Street Circuit	May 2
	R4
3	R5	Race of Italy	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	May 23
	R6
4	R7	Race of Belgium	Circuit Zolder	June 20
	R8
5	R9	Race of Portugal	Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão	July 4
	R10
6	R11	Race of UK	Brands Hatch, Kent	July 18
	R12
7	R13	Race of the Czech Republic	Masaryk Circuit, Brno	August 1
	R14
8	R15	Race of Germany	Motorsport Arena Oschersleben	September 5
	R16
9	R17	Race of Spain	Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia	September 19
	R18
10	R19	Race of Japan	Okayama International Circuit, Mimasaka	October 31
	R20
11	R21	Race of Macau	Circuito da Guia, Macau	November 21
	R22

Calendar changes

• The Race of Belgium is to replace the Race of France, and will be on the calendar for the first time since 2005. This time it will be at Zolder rather than Spa-Francorchamps.
• The Race of Portugal will move to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.
• The venue for the Race of Italy has been changed from the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari near Imola back to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, which hosted the race from 2005 until 2008.

Results and standings

Races

Race	Race Name	Pole Position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning independent	Report
1	Race of Brazil	Yvan Muller	Robert Huff	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Sergio Hernández	Report
2			Gabriele Tarquini	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	Sergio Hernández
3	Race of Morocco	Gabriele Tarquini	Fredy Barth	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	Franz Engstler	Report
4			Jordi Gené	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	Mehdi Bennani
5	Race of Italy	Augusto Farfus	Gabriele Tarquini	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	Harry Vaulkhard	Report
6			Andy Priaulx	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Stefano D'Aste
7	Race of Belgium	Gabriele Tarquini	Andy Priaulx	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	Kristian Poulsen	Report
8			Andy Priaulx	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	Sergio Hernández
9	Race of Portugal	Tiago Monteiro	Gabriele Tarquini	Tiago Monteiro	SR-Sport	Sergio Hernández	Report
10			Jordi Gené	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	Darryl O'Young
11	Race of UK	Yvan Muller	Andy Priaulx	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Colin Turkington	Report
12			Andy Priaulx	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	Colin Turkington
13	Race of the Czech Republic	Robert Huff	Augusto Farfus	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Kristian Poulsen	Report
14			Gabriele Tarquini	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	Darryl O'Young
15	Race of Germany	Augusto Farfus					Report
16
17	Race of Spain						Report
18
19	Race of Japan						Report
20
21	Guia Race of Macau						Report
22

Standings

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver BRA MAR ITA BEL POR UK CZE GER ESP JPN MAC  Pts  1 Yvan Muller 1 4 6 2 4 1 2 5 2 2 1 5 NC 12 199 2 Gabriele Tarquini 4 1 1 6 7 20 1 6 3 1 4 3 2 18 194 3 Andy Priaulx 5 Ret 8 1 1 5 7 1 Ret 4 7 1 5 1 183 4 Robert Huff 2 5 2 Ret 3 3 5 2 18 15 2 6 1 4 167 5 Alain Menu 3 3 9 Ret 17 9 3 4 5 3 22 NC 3 3 116 6 Tiago Monteiro 11 7 3 4 9 7 4 3 1 7 8 Ret 9 6 113 7 Augusto Farfus 6 6 10 Ret 2 4 9 8 4 5 6 8 4 5 P 109 8 Tom Coronel 8 Ret 5 3 5 2 8 10 6 6 5 4 Ret 10 101 9 Colin Turkington 12 10 3 2 6 2 60 10 Fredy Barth 9 14 4 5 6 14 10 18 8 8 11 Ret 12 8 45 11 Norbert Michelisz 10 9 7 10 19 8 6 7 7 Ret 9 7 Ret 14 42 12 Jordi Gené 7 2 13 8 16 6 DSQ Ret Ret 18 10 10 Ret 13 38 13 Michel Nykjær 12 8 11 7 8 19 18 Ret 17 Ret 15 9 7 Ret 22 14 Darryl O'Young 15 16 17 13 Ret 12 20 12 10 9 21 Ret 17 7 9 15 Sergio Hernández 13 10 14 Ret 12 16 13 9 9 17 16 12 11 11 5 16 Kristian Poulsen Ret 15 11 11 11 Ret 23 Ret 8 19 4 17 Stefano D'Aste 17 15 Ret 11 11 11 16 13 14 13 18 11 10 9 3 18 Mehdi Bennani 18 12 15 9 14 17 14 19 Ret 12 19 Ret 14 16 2 19 Harry Vaulkhard 16 13 16 Ret 10 13 15 Ret 15 11 17 14 15 15 1 20 Leonel Pernía 18 10 1 21 Franz Engstler 14 11 12 12 Ret DNS Ret 16 13 14 14 13 13 Ret 0 22 Pierre-Yves Corthals 12 15 0 23 Andrei Romanov Ret DNS Ret DNS 13 Ret 19 17 16 16 16 17 0 24 Tom Boardman 13 Ret 0 25 Vincent Radermecker 17 14 0 26 Fabio Fabiani 15 18 18 20 0 27 Tim Coronel 20 15 0 Ismaïl Sbaï Ret DNS 0 Carlos "Cacá" Bueno Ret DNS 0 Youssaf El Marnissi DNS DNS 0 guest drivers ineligible for points – Robert Dahlgren 12 Ret * Pos Driver BRA MAR ITA BEL POR UK CZE GER ESP JPN MAC  Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Manufacturers' championship

The Manufacturers’ title will be awarded to the highest scoring manufacturer, taking into account the results obtained by the two best placed cars per manufacturer at each race. All other cars of that same manufacturer are considered invisible as far as scoring points is concerned.

Pos	Team	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts
1	Chevrolet	1	3	2	2	3	1	2	2	2	2	1	5	1	3									445
		2	4	6	13	4	3	3	4	5	3	2	6	3	4
2	SEAT Customers Technology	4	1	1	3	5	2	1	3	1	1	4	3	2	6									405
		7	2	3	4	6	6	4	6	3	6	5	4	7	8
3	BMW	5	6	8	1	1	4	7	1	4	4	3	1	4	1									382
		6	10	10	9	2	5	9	8	9	5	6	2	5	2
Pos	Team	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts

Yokohama Independents' Trophy

Pos	Driver	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts
1	Sergio Hernández	13	10	14	Ret	12	16	13	9	9	17	16	12	11	11									96
2	Stefano D'Aste	17	15	Ret	11	11	11	16	13	14	13	18	11	10	9	P								79
3	Colin Turkington									12	10	3	2	P1										73
4	Darryl O'Young	15	16	17	13	Ret	12	20	12	10	9	21	Ret	17	7									68
5	Harry Vaulkhard	16	13	16	Ret	10	13	15	Ret	15	11	17	14	15	15									61
6	Franz Engstler	14	11	12	12	Ret	DNS	Ret	16	13	14	14	13	13	Ret									60
7	Mehdi Bennani	18	12	15	9	14	17	14	19	Ret	12	19	Ret	14	16									56
8	Kristian Poulsen					Ret	15	11	11	11	Ret	23	Ret	8	19									43
9	Andrei Romanov	Ret	DNS	Ret	DNS	13	Ret	19	17	16	16			16	17									17
10	Pierre-Yves Corthals							12	15															13
11	Tom Boardman											13	Ret											8
12	Fabio Fabiani					15	18							18	20									6
13	Tim Coronel											20	15											4
	Ismaïl Sbaï			Ret	DNS																			0
	Youssaf El Marnissi			DNS	DNS																			0
Pos	Driver	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts

1. ^ – After taking pole position at Brno, Colin Turkington was stripped of his independent status. Another change made at Brno was the removal of extra points to the championship, if the driver finished in the overall top ten, after Turkington claimed 33 bonus points at Brands Hatch.

Yokohama Teams' Trophy

Pos	Team	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts
1	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	13	10	14	11	11	11	13	9	9	13	16	11	10	9									164
		17	15	Ret	Ret	12	16	16	13	14	17	18	12	11	11
2	bamboo-engineering	15	13	16	13	10	12	15	12	10	9	17	14	15	7									121
		16	16	17	Ret	Ret	13	20	Ret	15	11	21	Ret	17	15
3	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	14	11	12	12	13	Ret	19	16	13	14	14	13	13	17									79
		Ret	DNS	Ret	DNS	Ret	DNS	Ret	17	16	16	20	15	16	Ret
4	Wiechers-Sport	18	12	15	9	14	17	14	19	Ret	12	19	Ret	14	16									53
5	Poulsen Motorsport					Ret	15	11	11	11	Ret	23	Ret	8	19									42
6	eBay Motors									12	10	3	2											33
7	Exagon Engineering							12	15															12
8	SUNRED Engineering											13	Ret											8
	Maurer Motorsport			Ret	DNS																			0
				DNS	DNS
Pos	Team	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts

Rookie Challenge

Pos	Driver	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts
1	Fredy Barth	9	14	4	5	4	14	10	18	8	8	11	Ret	12	8									104
2	Norbert Michelisz	10	9	8	10	19	8	6	7	7	Ret	9	7	Ret	14									99
3	Michel Nykjær	12	8	11	7	8	19	18	Ret	17	Ret	15	9	7	Ret									73
4	Darryl O'Young	15	16	16	13	Ret	12	20	12	10	9	21	Ret	17	7									66
5	Harry Vaulkhard	16	13	16	Ret	10	13	15	Ret	15	11	17	14	15	15									61
6	Mehdi Bennani	18	12	15	9	14	17	14	19	Ret	12	19	Ret	14	16									60
Pos	Driver	BRA		MAR		ITA		BEL		POR		UK		CZE		GER		ESP		JPN		MAC		Pts

External links

• Official website of the World Touring Car Championship