The 2010 World Touring Car Championship season was 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 7 March and ended with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on 21 November, after twenty-two races at eleven events. The championship was open to both Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars.
A new points system was 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 of each race received 25 points, continuing with 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point for 10th place.
In the week leading up to the final event in Macau, 2008 champion Yvan Muller was confirmed as Drivers' Champion after the BMWs of Augusto Farfus and title rival Andy Priaulx were excluded from the results of the event in Japan, after the FIA overturned a stewards' decision allowing the BMWs to run sequential gearboxes. Chevrolet was awarded the Manufacturers' Championship title.
Teams and drivers
The full season entry list was released on 19 February 2010. TeamCarNo.DriversEvents Manufacturer Teams SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1 Gabriele Tarquini All 2 Tom Coronel All 3 Tiago Monteiro All 4 Jordi Gené 1–9 66 André Couto 11 73 Michaël Rossi 10 SUNRED Engineering 17 Michel Nykjær All SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED 18 Fredy Barth All Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 5 Norbert Michelisz All Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 6 Yvan Muller All 7 Robert Huff All 8 Alain Menu All 9 Carlos "Cacá" Bueno 6 35 Vincent Radermecker 4 BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 10 Augusto Farfus All 11 Andy Priaulx All eBay Motors BMW 320si 29 Colin Turkington 7 Team Aviva-COFCO 10–11 Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze LT 34 Leonel Pernía 3 Yokohama Trophy Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si 15 Franz Engstler All 16 Andrey Romanov 1–5, 7–11 42 Tim Coronel 6 bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti 19 Harry Vaulkhard 1–7 20 Darryl O'Young All 72 Yukinori Taniguchi 8–11 Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si 21 Mehdi Bennani All Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320si 24 Kristian Poulsen 3–11 Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si 25 Sergio Hernández All 26 Stefano D'Aste 1–10 33 Fabio Fabiani 3, 7–8 Exagon Engineering SEAT León 27 Pierre-Yves Corthals 4 eBay Motors BMW 320si 29 Colin Turkington 5–6 Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Lacetti 30 Ismaïl Sbaï 2 31 Youssaf El Marnissi 2 SUNRED EngineeringSEAT León 38 Tom Boardman 6 SEAT Customers Technology 39 Marc Carol 9 Asian Wild Card Entries Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si 43 Nobuteru Taniguchi 10–11 45 Kevin Chen 10–11 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si 44 Yoshihiro Ito 10 47 Masaki Kano 11 50 Jo Merszei 11 Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si 46 Masataka Yanagida 10 Ho Chun Kei / Sports & You Asia BMW 320si 51 Henry Ho 10–11 Jacob & Co Racing Honda Accord Euro R 53 Philip Ma 11 Team Novadriver Total BMW 320si 63 César Campaniço 11 Andy Racing Team Honda Accord Euro R 64 Kuok Io Keong 11 Chan Kin Man Honda Civic Type R 65 Chan Kin Man 11 Volvo Olsbergs Green Racing Volvo C30 41 Robert Dahlgren 6, 10 Key Eligible for the Rookie Challenge.
Team and driver changes Chevrolet 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 retired from the series, while former BMW Team Germany driver Jörg Müller raced in the Le Mans Series with Schnitzer.
SEAT Sport withdrew from the series for 2010, but helped Sunred 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 drove for.
Stefano D'Aste returned to Scuderia Proteam Motorsport, for whom he raced in 2005, 2006 and 2008, moving from Wiechers-Sport. His seat was taken by Mehdi Bennani, who moved from Exagon Engineering. D'Aste was joined at Proteam by Sergio Hernández, who returned to Proteam from BMW Team Italy-Spain. Fabio Fabiani raced an additional car for the team at his home event in Italy, just as he did in 2009.
Andrey Romanov rejoined the series and the Liqui Moly Team Engstler setup. He replaced Kristian Poulsen, who raced with his own Poulsen Motorsport team. Romanov could not drive at Brands Hatch for personal reasons, so was replaced by Tim Coronel.
Michel Nykjær joined SUNRED Engineering after racing in the WTCC for Perfection Racing at the 2009 Race of Germany. He replaced Tom Boardman, who returned to the BTCC, driving for Special Tuning (UK). Boardman returned to the WTCC with SUNRED for his home event. Fredy Barth joined the team from the SEAT León Eurocup, racing under the SEAT Swiss Team by SUNRED banner. Zengő Dension Motorsport 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 joined the WTCC, along with their driver Harry Vaulkhard. Darryl O'Young, who drove in the FIA GT Championship with Prospeed Competition in 2009, was his teammate for most of this season, before Vaulkhard was forced to withdraw owing to a lack of sponsorship, and was replaced by Yukinori Taniguchi.
James Thompson, who drove for Lada Sport in 2009, was set to race at certain European rounds for Hartmann Racing, in addition to campaigns in the Danish Touring Car Championship and European Touring Car Cup, but left the team, whilst Lada did not return for 2010.
SEAT's Rickard Rydell elected to take a sabbatical from racing for the 2010 season. Instead, he became a TV pundit for Viasat Motor's coverage of the Swedish Touring Car Championship.
Jaap van Lagen returned to the Porsche Supercup, a series in which he finished seventh in 2008.
Without drives for 2010 were 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 for 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 event 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 also raced in Japan, in a 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 11 April, was cancelled in March due to security fears in the region. Series organisers looked for a replacement, but negotiations with interested event promoters did not meet with the championship's logistic and promotional requirements, meaning the season was reduced to eleven events.
Event Race Name Track Date 1 R1 HSBC Race of Brazil Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba 7 March R2 2 R3 Race of Morocco Marrakech Street Circuit 2 May R4 3 R5 Yokohama Race of Italy Autodromo Nazionale di Monza 23 May R6 4 R7 Monroe Race of Belgium Circuit Zolder 20 June R8 5 R9 Race of Turismo de Portugal Autódromo Internacional do Algarve 4 July R10 6 R11 Mariott Race of UK Brands Hatch 18 July R12 7 R13 Monroe Race of the Czech Republic Masaryk Circuit 1 August R14 8 R15 Race of Germany Motorsport Arena Oschersleben 5 September R16 9 R17 DHL Race of Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo 19 September R18 10 R19 Kenwood Race of Japan Okayama International Circuit 31 October R20 11 R21 Race of Macau Guia Circuit 21 November R22
Calendar changes The Race of Belgium, which replaced the Race of France, was on the calendar for the first time since 2005. This time it was held at Zolder rather than Spa-Francorchamps. The Race of Portugal was moved to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. The venue for the Race of Italy was changed from the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari near Imola back to the Autodromo Nazionale di 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 Report 2 SR-Sport Sergio Hernández 3 Race of Morocco Fredy Barth Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport Franz Engstler Report 4 Jordi Gené Andy Priaulx 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 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 Alain Menu Alain Menu Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Report 16 Gabriele Tarquini Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM Kristian Poulsen 17 Race of Spain Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport Kristian Poulsen Report 18 Tiago Monteiro Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport Kristian Poulsen 19 Race of Japan Andy Priaulx Yvan Muller Robert Huff Chevrolet Yukinori Taniguchi Report 20 Michel Nykjær Colin Turkington Team Aviva-COFCO Darryl O'Young 21 Guia Race of Macau Robert Huff Robert Huff Robert Huff Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Report 22 Robert Huff Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team Sergio Hernández
Championship standings Points system 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 251815121086421
Drivers' Championship