The 2012 World Touring Car Championship season was the ninth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the eighth since its 2005 return. The championship, which was open to Super 2000 cars, began with the Race of Italy at Monza on 11 March and ended with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on 18 November, after twenty-four races. Robert Huff won the Drivers' Championship and Chevrolet won the Manufacturers' Championship.
Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers contested the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship.
TeamCarDriversRounds Manufacturer Teams Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1 Yvan Muller All 2 Robert Huff All 8 Alain Menu All Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden 9 Rickard Rydell 1 Team Aviva-COFCO 32 Colin Turkington 11 Lukoil Racing Team SEAT León 1.6 TSI WTCC 3 Gabriele Tarquini All Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 14 James Nash All 23 Tom Chilton All ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 15 Tom Coronel All Tuenti Racing Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 18 Tiago Monteiro 1 SUNRED SR León 1.6T 2–9 Honda Racing Team JAS Honda Civic S2000 TC 10–12 Yokohama Trophy Lukoil Racing Team SEAT León WTCC 4 Aleksei Dudukalo All Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC 5 Norbert Michelisz All 27 Gábor Wéber 1–2, 4–7 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC 6 Franz Engstler All 7 Charles Ng All bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 11 Alex MacDowall All 12 Pasquale Di Sabatino 1–7 17 Michel Nykjær 8 20 Darryl O'Young 10–12 29 Robb Holland 9 ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 16 Alberto Cerqui 1–11 46 Kei Cozzolino 12 Special Tuning Racing SEAT León 1.6 TSI WTCC 20 Darryl O'Young 1–9 38 René Münnich 10 22 Tom Boardman 7–12 SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2–6 Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC 24 Isaac Tutumlu 1–3 25 Mehdi Bennani All 48 Felice Tedeschi 9 Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC 26 Stefano D'Aste All SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 40 Andrea Barlesi 1 SUNRED SR León 1.6T 2–3 60 Hugo Valente 11 88 Fernando Monje 2 Tuenti Racing Team SEAT León 1.6 TSI WTCC 8–12 74 Pepe Oriola All SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED 73 Fredy Barth 11–12 Asian Wild Cards China Dragon Racing Chevrolet Lacetti 50 Felipe De Souza 11–12 55 Célio Alves Dias 12 Chevrolet Cruze LT 51 Kin Veng Ng 11–12 Son Veng Racing Team Honda Accord Euro R 53 Kelvin Leong 11 Look Fong Racing Team Chevrolet Cruze LT 54 Eric Kwong 11 Tuenti Racing Team SUNRED SR León 1.6T 66 Andre Couto 12 80 Hiroki Yoshimoto 10 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si 75 Masaki Kano 10 76 Alex Liu 11 77 Jo Merszei 12 RPM Racing Team BMW 320si 78 Mak Ka Lok 12 Five Auto Racing Team Honda Accord Euro R 81 Eurico de Jesus 12 BMW 320si 82 Henry Ho 12 TMS Sport Lada Granta 1.6T WTCC 69 James Thompson 5, 7
Driver changes Changed Teams Darryl O'Young moved from Bamboo Engineering to join Special Tuning Racing. However, in the tenth round of the championship, he re-joined Bamboo Engineering for the remainder of the season, taking over Pasquale Di Sabatino's car, after Di Sabbitino had been replaced by Michel Nykjær and Robb Holland for the previous two rounds in the championship. Michel Nykjær left the series to join Rickard Rydell in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship with Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden. However at Curitiba he replaced Pasquale Di Sabatino at Bamboo Engineering.
Entering/Re-Entering WTCC Former Formula Le Mans champion Andrea Barlesi will join the series with Sunred Engineering. He will be joined by former European F3 Open driver Fernando Monje. Tom Boardman will enter the series for his first full season campaign since 2009. Italian Superstars Series champion Alberto Cerqui will enter the series with ROAL Motorsport. Tom Chilton and James Nash will enter the series with Arena Motorsport. Pasquale Di Sabatino and Alex MacDowall will join the series with Bamboo Engineering, from Auto GP and the British Touring Car Championship respectively. James Thompson will return at selected races with TMS Sport. Gábor Wéber will enter the series with the Zengő Motorsport team, partnering countryman Norbert Michelisz. 2011 STCC champion Rickard Rydell returned to the series with Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden for one-off at Monza. After competing in one-off events, Charles Ng will participate full-time with Engstler Motorsport. Robb Holland joined Bamboo Engineering for the Sonoma round of the championship.
Leaving WTCC, excluding single-entry drivers Robert Dahlgren left the series to join Polestar Racing in the TTA Racing Elite League. 2011 Yokohama trophy winner Kristian Poulsen announced that he was to retire from motor racing. Fredy Barth left the series due to financial reasons. Fabio Fabiani and Urs Sonderegger are competing in the European Touring Car Cup. Yukinori Taniguchi was left with no drive for the 2012 season. Javier Villa was expected to be driving the second Proteam BMW car, but due to sponsorship issues he was left without a drive, and switched to the Racecar Euro Series.
Calendar Each meeting consists of two races of approx 50 km each. Round Race Name Track Date 1 R1 HyFlex Race of Italy Autodromo Nazionale di Monza 11 March R2 2 R3 interwetten.com Race of Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo 1 April R4 3 R5 Race of Morocco Marrakech Street Circuit 15 April R6 4 R7 Race of Slovakia Automotodróm Slovakia Ring 29 April R8 5 R9 Race of Hungary Hungaroring 6 May R10 6 R11 bet-at-home.com Race of Austria Salzburgring 20 May R12 7 R13 Euronics Race of Portugal Autódromo Internacional do Algarve 3 June R14 8 R15 PDVSA Race of Brazil Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba 22 July R16 9 R17 Race of USA Sonoma Raceway 23 September R18 10 R19 JVC Kenwood Race of Japan Suzuka Circuit 21 October R20 11 R21 Race of China Shanghai International Circuit 4 November R22 12 R23 Race of Macau Guia Circuit 18 November R24
Calendar changes Numerous changes have been made to the 2012 calendar: The Race of Austria will make its debut in 2012 at the Salzburgring. The Race of Belgium, Race of UK, Race of Germany and the Race of the Czech Republic have all been discontinued. The Race of Brazil will not be the opening round of the season for the first time since its debut in 2006. The Race of China will move from the Shanghai Tianma Circuit to the Shanghai International Circuit. The Race of Italy will become the season opening event, with the Race of Spain being brought forward to an April date. The Race of Morocco returns to the calendar after a one-year absence. The Race of Slovakia will make its debut in 2012 at the Slovakiaring, replacing the proposed Race of Argentina. The Race of Portugal will return at Portimão, switching from Porto the previous season and Estoril as it was initially planned. The Race of the United States will make its debut in 2012 at Sonoma Raceway in the aforementioned California city. The circuit was the full layout except for the motorcycle chicane in Turn 10.
Season report
Round One – Italy Having dominated the previous season, and still being the only factory-supported team in 2012, the factory Chevrolets were expected to dominate qualifying, but instead it was Gabriele Tarquini in his Lukoil SEAT who took a surprising pole position. The leading Chevrolet of defending champion Yvan Muller was second, only six-hundredths behind Tarquini, with his teammates Robert Huff and Alain Menu on the second row. Rickard Rydell, in a one-off outing, took fifth in a fourth Chevrolet supplied by Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden. Pepe Oriola took pole in the Yokohama class by qualifying seventh.
The standing start for Race 1 saw no incidents in the first chicane, but that was not the case later in the lap as Huff and Menu touched while battling for third, and went into the gravel. Both drivers lost out, Huff dropping to sixth and Menu well outside the top ten. Tarquini and Muller soon began a battle for the lead, which eventually ended up in Muller's favour after Tarquini made a mistake on lap 4. Rydell ran third briefly, but was passed by a recovering Huff mid-race, and the Brit then passed Tarquini as the latter struggled with fading tyres. Muller started off his title defence with a win ahead of Huff, Tarquini and Rydell. Sixth place was enough for Pepe Oriola to win the Yokohama trophy.
Aleksei Dudukalo and Oriola, who were supposed to start second and fourth in the reverse-grid Race 2, both suffered problems before the race began, the former did not even start whereas the latter started from the pitlane. Norbert Michelisz led away at the start, ahead of Tom Coronel and Stefano D'Aste. The Chevrolet trio were battling for fifth at the start of lap 2 when Huff tagged Muller at the first chicane, sending him into a spin. Muller went backwards through the chicane but was able to correct it and not lose any places; Tarquini came out the big loser in this having to retire after hitting Huff. After this incident, the Chevrolets then closed in on the lead BMWs and picked them off one by one. Leader Norbert Michelisz made a better fight for his position and kept Muller at bay repeatedly until he hit a pigeon with three laps left. Michelisz lost straight-line speed as a result and was passed by Muller later that lap, Menu and Huff soon followed. The Chevrolets held station after that, with Muller making it a double, whereas Michelisz had lost so much pace that he was also passed by Stefano D'Aste who took the Yokohama trophy.
Round Two – Spain Fresh from his double victory at Monza, defending champion Yvan Muller continued his form by taking pole by a comfortable margin. Gabriele Tarquini qualified second in his SEAT, with Tom Coronel making it three manufacturers in the top three by qualifying third. Pepe Oriola was fourth and the first of the Yokohama Trophy drivers, while Muller's Chevrolet teammates Robert Huff and Alain Menu could manage only fifth and ninth respectively.
Tarquini got a better jump than Muller initially, but Muller made full use of the inside line to keep his lead at the start. Once ahead, he rapidly drove away from the field and cruised to victory, with his lead peaking at 8 seconds at one stage before he backed off at the end. Tarquini had a much harder time in second, with Coronel attacking him throughout the race, but was unable to get past and had to settle for third despite seeming to have a quicker car. Huff and Menu finished fourth and fifth, with sixth enough for Pepe Oriola to win in the Yokohama category.
In the second race, Stefano D'Aste led early on from pole. Menu, who started second briefly lost out to Franz Engstler before regaining it and then closed down D'Aste, eventually passing him just after mid-distance. Later, oil on the track at turn 10 caused chaos as the top three of Menu, D'Aste and Engstler all went off; Tom Coronel was the beneficiary and moved into second place right behind Menu. On the last lap, there was a minor collision as Coronel attempted to pass, which sent Menu into a slide but he was able to hold it and take the win. Coronel was less than a second behind in second, and D'Aste was third as well as being the Yokohama winner. Yvan Muller could manage only eighth as he also was caught out by the oil and went off track.
Round Three – Morocco At the start of Q2, Tom Coronel set the pace in his ROAL Motorsport BMW and looked set to take pole position until the final minutes when the factory Chevrolets of Alain Menu and Robert Huff went quicker. Championship leader Yvan Muller had to settle for fourth, with the Independents category pole being taken again by Pepe Oriola. On the morning of the race, Gabriele Tarquini, who qualified fifth, had his Q2 times disallowed after his car was deemed underweight, and so would have to start 12th.