In the previous seasons the World Touring Car Championship had built a reputation of being unpredictable, always crowning its champion at the Macau finale.
However, this year Chevrolet has disrupted this tradition, pocketing both the Manufacturers‘ and Drivers‘ titles again after the ninth race meeting that was held last weekend in Valencia.
The Cruze cars built and run by RML dominated the field while defending the 2010 titles. In an impressive crescendo, Yvan Muller, Rob Huff and Alain Menu have claimed nine pole positions out of nine, 16 race wins out of 18 and 39 podium finishes (including Carlos Bueno’s third place at Curitiba) out of 54.
Although is worth to point out that sometimes they received some helps from the competitors, like it was the case in Valencia’s second race when the four leaders (Coronel, Villa, Michelisz and Nykjær) were are eliminated in various circumstances.
Now it’s up to the drivers themselves who have to settle the title matter, and it is higlhy predictable that Muller and Huff will keep on fighting until the last race. With Menu waiting to benefit from any false move of his own team-mates.
The Chevrolet team celebrate the retaining of both FIA WTCC titles
YVAN MULLER’S RECORD SEASON
In a season in which the Chevrolet team are setting new standards for the World Touring Car Championship, Yvan Muller is personally ammassing records on records.
20 RACE WINS – By winning both races last weekend at Valencia, the reigning world champion has become the most victorious driver ever in the championship. With 20 race wins he has now left behind Andy Priaulx (18) and the duo Rob Huff-Gabriele Tarquini (16).
7 VICTORIES IN ONE SEASON – Having already won seven races so far this year, Muller has also wiped out the previous record for victory in one season: 6 set by Augusto Farfus in 2009 and matched by Priaulx (2010) and Huff (2011).
MORE THAN 1000 POINTS – The Frenchman is also leading the scorers‘ statistic, having pocketed 1044 points over the 128 races he took part in six seasons. He has been the first driver to top the 1000-point mark, a remarkable achievement considering that the others are far behind: Huff (840 points in 148 races) and Tarquini (822 points in 147).
Yvan Muller has become the most successful WTCC driver ever
HUFF’S PROMISE: IT’S NOT OVER YET!
Rob Huff is disappointed, and for very good reasons. After having led the championship since the very first race at Curitiba and built up a leading marging that was as high as 36 points, the young Briton has seen the whole of his advantage eroded by his Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller. And finally he was ousted from the lead in Valencia, finding himself with 16 points to recover.
However, he is far from giving up. "It’s not over yet!" he promised. "The WTCC is a highly competitive championship and I’m not going to let Yvan get his hands on the title without a good fight. I started this year looking forwards, and that is how I am going to continue."
Huff is determined to step on the winning podium again, something he already did six times so far in the current season but failed to do since the second race in Porto.