Amongst the ten events, twenty races of the 2007 FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) calendar, the seventh and eighth rounds were held at Pau in France. This was the first time for the series to visit the French city, and this was also the first street course event of the season. Until the 2006 season, Macau had been the sole venue of street circuit races in the WTCC, but from this year Pau and Porto (Portugal) were added to the calendar as the second and third street events and more exciting races are expected in those venues too.

It was Alan Menu in a Chevrolet who was in top form in the Friday practice. The winner of the third round in Netherlands marked the fastest time of the day, 1'23"558, which was 0.06 seconds ahead of Yvan Muller in SEAT.

On Saturday, two free practice sessions were run prior to the qualify session. The fastest man of the first was Muller, but Menu hit back in the second practice session with a 0.466 second advantage for the French driver.

Naturally, these two were expected to be the key drivers in the qualifying session. And after the hotly fought session that saw eleven cars in a gap of just one second, the favorite driver, Menu, took his second pole position of the season following the first one in Zandvoort, being 0.398 seconds ahead of the second fastest man, Muller.

Race 1 on Sunday (the seventh round) was led by the pole sitter, Menu, throughout. Although Muller and other drivers pushed him tenaciously, the Swiss driver kept his leading position for the whole nineteen laps in a consistent pace and scored his second win of the season since the third round.

For Race 2 (the eighth round), the top eight finishers started from the reverse grids according to the result of the Race 1. The star of the race was Augusto Farfus who sat on the second grid at the start. He had a big accident in the qualifying session and badly damaged his car, but he could take part in Race 1 thanks to his team crew's great effort to repair the car. So the Brazilian had something to render to his crews.

Two BMW's driven by Farfus and Andy Priaulx passed Jordi Gene in a SEAT who started from the pole position in the early stage of the race, and the BMW drivers held a close battle for the top slot. Keeping a nearly 5 second gap to third, Priaulx came as close as 0.370 second behind to Farfus, but the latter wouldn't allow him to go through.

As a result, Farfus took the checkered flag and marked his second win this year following his home win in the second round. Priaulx finished second and earned some valuable points in both races, which promoted him to championship leader. The last corner of the podium for Race 2 was occupied by Tiago Monteiro, after the same feat in Race 1. He turned from Grand Prix racing to WTCC this year and has been a focus of attention since his debut in this series.

Born in Bailiwick of Guernsey, on 8th August, 1974.

He started competition with a racing kart at the age of eight, and then turned to hill climb races. In 1995, he scored ten wins in the British Hill Climb Championship series and took the title that year.
The following year, at the age of twenty-two, car racing became his main field and he entered Formula Renault and Formula Three races in England.
After taking the title crown of the British Renault Sport Spider Cup with thirteen wins in 1999, he drove in the British Formula Three Championship series for next two years.
In 2002 season, he regularly competed in the British Touring Car Championship driving a Honda Civic and finished the season in fifth with one win.
Then he moved to the BMW camp the following year, and finished the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) in third that year before taking the crown in 2004. Having participated in the WTCC since its inaugural year, he is currently the sole WTCC champion driver ever as he won both of the 2005 and 2006 championship titles.

Born in Portugal, on July 24th, 1976.

In 1997 when he was 20 year old, he competed in the French Porsche Carrera Cup series. Then, from the next year, he turned to the French Formula Three Championship and scored his first win in 1999 before finishing the 2000 and 2001 season in second.
He stepped up to the FIA F3000 Championship in 2002 and his best result in the series was fifth. After driving in the CART series in America for a year, he came back to Europe and entered the World Series by Nissan in which he finished the season in second. In the same year, he was appointed as a test driver of Minardi Formula One team.
In 2005, he finally got a regular seat with a Jordan Formula One car and established a new record of eighteen consecutive race finishes in a year. Also he became the first Portuguese to get on the podium of a Grand Prix race, when he finished the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix in third.
Taking part in the WTCC from the second event of the 2007 season, he is expected to become a major force in the SEAT camp.

Pau (France)

It takes approximately five hours by TGV from Paris to Pau which is close to the border between France and Spain. Built around the Palais Baumont which contains a conference hall and a casino, the course runs through the streets of the city, including Pyrenees avenue which was constructed by the order of Napoleon and has a very good view of the Pyrenees mountains.

The length of the track is 2,760m, which is relatively short. Being a typical street circuit, it has many tight corners with guard rails just on the verge of the track throughout, so the pressure on the drivers is more intense than that of the permanent circuits with ample escape zones.