After the commemorative 100th race, the FIA World Touring Car Championship began its new "century" with the British round (the 15th and 16th races of the series) at the prestigious Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit.

The qualifying session on Saturday was dominated by the Chevrolet drivers, as Alain Menu took the pole positon followed by his teammate Rob Huff in second. Behind the Chevrolet duo on the front row, two BMWs of Andy Priaulx and August Farfus, the winner of the 100th race in the previous round, came in third and fourth respectively. Then two SEATs of Rickard Rydell and Gabriele Tarquini sat on the third row.

Against the manufacturer backed drivers, one of the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy contenders, Norbert Michelisz in a SEAT Leon TFSI, performed well enough to go into Q2 and got the tenth grid for Race 1, despite that this was the first appearance in the championship this year for the Hungarian driver.

Race 1 on Sunday was run on the damp track. After a rolling start led by two Chevrolets, it was Huff who took the lead position with a better getaway when they entered the first corner.

Although the whole field went through Turn 1, there was an accident involving a few cars in the middle of the field when they rushed into Druids Bend, a righthand hair-pin corner. To avoid the Farfus's BMW which lost control in the pack, other drivers had to take averting maneuvers on the narrow track, which led to a huge confusion. In the midst of this, the BMW of Felix Porteiro hit the Yvan Muller's SEAT Leon TDi and almost drove over it!

Starting from the tenth grid, Michelisz was also involved in the trouble and his car was damaged and halted on the track. To clear up these wrecks, the Safety Car had to come out.

The race resumed on Lap 4 and, after regaining the top slot on the next lap, Menu consistently went on lap after lap. While there was another multi-car crash during the race which called for the second Safety Car period, the Chevrolet's one-two formation wasn't threatened until the checkered flag fell, even though Priaulx was in hot pursuit of them in the closing stage.

With this win, the Swiss has scored a victory in each of four successive years at Brands Hatch, since he became the first WTCC winner for the American manufacturer here in 2006, which was a splendid feat. The YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class was won by Stefano D'Aste for three races running, after some close battles with Tom Coronel.

While Race 1 was run on the changing conditions from damp to dry, the track surfaces had dried up before the start of Race 2.

The pole sitter for the race, according to the reverse grid rule, was Farfus who spun and dropped way down the order but recovered to eighth at the finish of Race 1. He was followed by Tiago Monteiro in a SEAT, Jorg Muller driving a BMW, and Rydell on the grids.

As for the independent class, the winner of Race 1, D'Aste sat on the ninth grid just in front of his main rivals, Coronel and Tom Boardman, both driving the SUNRED Engineering's SEAT Leon TFSIs, so the fierce fight between them was expected again in the second race.

It is the accepted view that the rear-wheel-drive BMWs have a certain advantage in a standing start which WTCC adopted for Race 2. Once again, the BMW drivers made good starts off the line and the pole sitting Farfus led the field when they entered Turn 1, with Muller coming up to second from the third grid. Priaulx, who started the race from sixth, also tried to overtake the SEAT drivers in front of him.

Although the Priaulx's attempt failed, the BMW's one-two by Farfus and Muller was firmly formed during the opening lap. Then the Safety Car suddenly came out on the track. It was to control the race while the medical helicopter was taking off to transfer a driver injured in the supporting F2 race. This was necessary to ensure a safe taking off of the helicopter because the heliport is so close to the race track.

After the restart, the two BMWs remained in their positions and led the race toroughout, as no one could threaten them. Thus the Brazilian scored his third victory of the season, following his second one in the previous round at Porto. Jorg Muller duly finished in second and Gabriele Tarquini in a SEAT Leon TDi took the last place on the podium with finishing third.

The reining champion, Yvan Muller retired from Race 1 before finishing Race 2 in seventh. Despite the lackluster performance at Brands Hatch, he is still leading the championship but the point gap with his rivals severely reduced, as Tarquini in second is just five points behind him and Farfus follows the Italian by merely a point, both looking to the turnaround of the championship standings.

In the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy class, Boardman took his maiden win in the WTCC series with a superb drive from the third grid in the class.

Now the championship enters into a more-than-six-weeks summer break after this British round. But the teams will continue to work on the development of their cars for the next German round at Oschersleben on September 5th and 6th, 2009.