The 2013 World Touring Car Championship season was the tenth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the ninth since the series was revived in 2005. The championship, which was reserved for cars run to Super 2000 regulations, began with the Race of Italy on 23 March and concluded with the Race of Macau in support of the Macau Grand Prix at the Guia Circuit on 17 November, after twenty-four races at twelve events.

Yvan Muller secured the Drivers' Championship title in Japan, with two events remaining in the season. Honda won the Manufacturers' Championship. Chevrolet was the defending manufacturers' champion, but it did not support a team in 2013, and thus was unable to defend its title.

James Nash won the Yokohama Drivers' Trophy for independent entries and RML won the Yokohama Teams' Trophy. The Lukoil Racing Team was the defending Yokohama Teams' Trophy winner, but was unable to defend its title as Lukoil closed their own team to support manufacturer Lada Sport team in 2013.

Teams and drivers TeamCarDriversRounds Manufacturer Teams Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCC 3 Gabriele Tarquini All 18 Tiago Monteiro All Lada Sport Lukoil Lada Granta WTCC 8 Mikhail Kozlovskiy 2–12 10 James Thompson All 11 Aleksey Dudukalo 1 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC 1 Robert Huff All 38 Marc Basseng All Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC 5 Norbert Michelisz All RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 Yvan Muller All 23 Tom Chilton All ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 15 Tom Coronel All NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 69 Rickard Rydell 11 Tuenti Racing Team SEAT León WTCC 74 Pepe Oriola 1–6 Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 7–12 Yokohama Trophy Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC 6 Franz Engstler 1–9, 11–12 7 Charles Ng All bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 9 Alex MacDowall All 14 James Nash All ANOME BMW 320 TC 13 Jean-Philippe Dayraut 1 NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 17 Michel Nykjær 1–9 Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC 19 Fernando Monje 1–11 20 Hugo Valente 4–5, 7–9, 11–12 21 Nikolay Karamyshev 6–7 81 Konstantīns Calko 12 Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCC 22 Tom Boardman 1–4, 7, 9–12 Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC 25 Mehdi Bennani All PB Racing BMW 320 TC 26 Stefano D'Aste All ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC 37 René Münnich All ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 55 Darryl O'Young All Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC 72 José María López 8 73 Fredy Barth 1–7, 9, 11–12 Eurosport Asian Trophy China Dragon Racing Chevrolet Cruze LT 60 Felipe De Souza 10–12 61 Kin Veng Ng 10–12 Chevrolet Lacetti 62 Lam Kam San 12 63 Célio Alves Dias 12 Son Veng Racing Team Chevrolet Cruze LT 66 Jerónimo Badaraco 10–12 NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 67 Hiroki Yoshimoto 10 33 Yukinori Taniguchi 12 Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC 10 Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC 11 80 Michael Soong 12 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC 68 Masaki Kano 10 BMW 320si 70 Jo Merszei 12 88 Henry Ho 10–12 RPM Racing BMW 320si 77 Mak Ka Lok 10–12 PAS Macau Racing Team Honda Accord Euro R 79 Eurico de Jesus 12 Honda Racing Team JAS Honda Civic WTCC 99 Takuya Izawa 10 Volvo Polestar Racing Volvo C30 DRIVe 40 Thed Björk 11

Team changes Arena Motorsport—who contested the 2012 season as Team Aon—did not compete in 2013 after its owner decided to shut down the team and concentrate its efforts on Formula One team Marussia F1. Former Formula One driver, team owner and GP2 Series team owner Adrián Campos entered the World Touring car Championship with two SEAT Leóns prepared by Sunred Engineering. Chevrolet announced that they withdrew from the series to concentrate on other projects. This leaves RML Group without the backing of a manufacturer. Stefano D'Aste established his own team, PB Motorsport. Honda entered the series in 2013 for the full season. JAS Motorsport entered two Honda Civic 1.6Ts on behalf of the manufacturer. After competing in FIA GT1 World Championship, Münnich Motorsport entered the World Touring Car Championship in 2013 with three SEAT León WTCC cars. After competing in two rounds in 2012, Russian car manufacturer Lada announced its intentions to contest races in 2013 with the Lada Granta WTCC, contesting a full season for the first time since 2009. On 15 November it was announced that the marque would enter a two car team for 2013. However, they later announced that they would enter a third car later of the season. NIKA Racing entered the series for the full season with a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T having previously entered two rounds of the championship since 2010.* Zengő Motorsport switched from entering a BMW 320 TC to the Honda Civic 1.6T for its 2013 campaign.

Driver changes Marc Basseng joined the series as a Münnich Motorsport driver, having won the 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship for the team. Tom Chilton moved to RML. Aleksei Dudukalo joined Lada for the 2013 season after two years with SEAT. Robert Huff switched to Münnich Motorsport to defend his championship title, replacing Markus Winkelhock in their lineup. Alain Menu left the series and moved into the Porsche Supercup. Tiago Monteiro joined Honda full-time for the 2013 season, having taken part in the final three races of 2012 season debuting the Honda entry. After a single entry during 2012, René Münnich will make his full-time World Touring Car Championship debut in 2013, racing for Münnich Motorsport. James Nash races for Bamboo Engineering in 2013 having raced for Team Aon in 2012. Darryl O'Young left Bamboo Engineering to join Tom Coronel at ROAL Motorsport in 2013. Gabriele Tarquini deserted Lukoil Racing Team, campaigning with the second Honda entry.

Mid-season changes Aleksei Dudukalo lost his seat with Lada Sport Lukoil after the Race of Italy. He was replaced by Russian Touring Car Championship driver Mikhail Kozlovskiy, with the team attributing the decision to replace Dudukalo as being a result of Dudukalo's collision with teammate James Thompson during qualifying for the race of Italy, forcing both Lada Granta WTCC cars out of the event. After the Moscow round, Pepe Oriola switched from his SEAT Leon to run an RML prepared Chevrolet Cruze. Michel Nykjær split with Nika Racing after the round in Sonoma. He was replaced by Hiroki Yoshimoto.

Calendar The 2013 championship was contested over twenty-four races, with two races held at each of twelve events throughout the year. The final calendar for the season was released in December 2012.

Race Race Name Circuit Date 1 R1 Race of Italy Autodromo Nazionale di Monza 24 March R2 2 R3 Race of Morocco Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan 7 April R4 3 R5 Race of Slovakia Automotodróm Slovakia Ring 28 April R6 4 R7 Race of Hungary Hungaroring 5 May R8 5 R9 Race of Austria Salzburgring 19 May R10 6 R11 Lukoil Race of Russia Moscow Raceway 9 June R12 7 R13 Race of Portugal Circuito da Boavista 30 June R14 8 R15 Race of Argentina Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo 4 August R16 9 R17 Race of the United States Sonoma Raceway 8 September R18 10 R19 JVC Kenwood Race of Japan Suzuka Circuit 22 September R20 11 R21 Race of China Shanghai International Circuit 3 November R22 12 R23 Guia Race of Macau Guia Circuit 17 November R24

Calendar changes The Race of Morocco was not included on the provisional calendar for 2013, though the provisional calendar was released with a vacant race date. The Race of Portugal returned to the Circuito da Boavista in Porto after being held at the Portimão circuit in 2012. The Race of Spain was originally included on the provisional calendar at a venue to be decided. However, the race was removed from the final calendar released in December 2012. The Race of Russia made its championship debut at the Moscow Raceway. The Race of Brazil was dropped before the start of the season, but was later reinstated. It was then dropped from the calendar again when the Argentine round was confirmed. An additional thirteenth round of the championship was added before the start of the season. In May 2013, it was confirmed the Race of Argentina made its championship debut at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo. The race in Argentina was confirmed in June, replacing the Brazilian round.

Results and standings

Races Race Race Name Pole Position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team Winning manufacturer winner Report 1 Race of Italy Yvan Muller Tom Chilton Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet Alex MacDowall Report 2 Pepe Oriola Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet Michel Nykjær 3 Race of Morocco Gabriele Tarquini Alex MacDowall Michel Nykjær NIKA Racing Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Report 4 Tom Chilton Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing Team SEAT James Nash 5 Race of Slovakia Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda WTC Team Honda James Nash Report 6 Tom Coronel Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW Alex MacDowall 7 Race of Hungary Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet Mehdi Bennani Report 8 Robert Huff Robert Huff Münnich Motorsport SEAT Mehdi Bennani 9 Race of Austria Yvan Muller Alex MacDowall Michel Nykjær NIKA Racing Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Report 10 Yvan Muller James Nash bamboo-engineering Chevrolet James Nash 11 Race of Russia Yvan Muller Tom Coronel Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Report 12 Michel Nykjær Michel Nykjær NIKA Racing Chevrolet Michel Nykjær 13 Race of Portugal Yvan Muller Pepe Oriola Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Report 14 Yvan Muller James Nash bamboo-engineering Chevrolet James Nash 15 Race of Argentina Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet José María López Report 16 Yvan Muller José María López Wiechers-Sport BMW José María López 17 Race of the United States Tom Chilton Tiago Monteiro Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet Alex MacDowall Report 18 Norbert Michelisz Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda WTC Team Honda Mehdi Bennani 19 Race of Japan Norbert Michelisz Norbert Michelisz Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Alex MacDowall Report 20 Mehdi Bennani Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW Mehdi Bennani 21 Race of China Yvan Muller Stefano D'Aste Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet James Nash Report 22 Tiago Monteiro Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda WTC Team Honda James Nash 23 Guia Race of Macau Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet Alex MacDowall Report 24 Yvan Muller Robert Huff Münnich Motorsport SEAT James Nash

Standings

Drivers' Championship