WTCC season review: Two sides to every story

Depending upon whom you talk to, this year's WTCC title was decided in very different ways.

Some in the paddock - invariably those whose interest lies on the petrol-powered side of the divide - will argue that they were beaten by a concept; the inference being that there was no way to compete with SEAT's diesel-powered Leons over the course of a season, and therefore the entire year was an exercise in damage limitation.

On the other hand, if the person you're chatting to has a yellow shirt and a strong Spanish accent, they'll tell you that the championship was won through disciplined and committed team work, earned by convincing five competitive drivers to fight for the badge first and personal gain second.

There's an element of truth in both cases, but the bottom line is that the championship was determined by one of the best touring car drivers on the planet driving a close to perfect season. Yvan Muller only won three races this year, putting him on level pegging with teammate (and main title rival) Gabriele Tarquini and Chevrolet's Alain Menu.

But consistency is as important as outright speed in the world championship, and it was Muller's ability to score points in every race but two - an outstanding achievement in a championship where half of the races have a reverse grid - that really made the difference.

"For sure, it is very hard to score points in every race," Muller said. "I learned that in the first season when I came here - I did a good beginning of the season, a good end to the season, but I lost too many points in the middle.

Gabriele Tarquini © XPB

"Last year I was working to be in the points consistently, and this year was just, points, points, points. That's the most important thing."

That said, it does help when you have machinery on your side. The SEAT Leon TDi set the benchmark more often than not, but while Muller may have had the best car, so did four other guys. All had their moments of glory, but none looked remotely as convincing as the Frenchman over the course of the season.

The greatest threat came from Tarquini, who at 47 still proved a tough match for some of his younger teammates. Pace was rarely an issue for Tarquini, but tempering his natural racing instincts proved to be more of a challenge - and too many points were squandered cheaply.

"I scored double-zero sometimes and to win this championship I think you need to score points at every round," he said. "Sometimes it was bad luck and sometimes it was a mistake."

Tarquini was the only driver who could have stopped Muller's charge for the title at the final round at Macau. Muller's 14-point advantage going into the weekend was always going to be difficult to overhaul, but considering what had happened there 12 months earlier - when Muller watched the championship slip through his grasp because of a fuel pump failure with two laps remaining - he was in no rush to count his poulet.

He needn't have worried. Tarquini crashed halfway through qualifying, leaving him a few rows behind his rival on the grid. Even if he'd managed to work his way up to the front he'd still have needed Muller to somehow drop out of the points. Instead, Muller drove a measured race to third, and secured the title with a race to spare.

Not only did Tarquini miss out on stealing the title, but he was very lucky to hold on to second in the standings after a late charge from Chevrolet's Rob Huff. The Briton had taken some time out at the start of the season to address his weaknesses - specifically qualifying - and emerged as the most improved driver in the championship.

Huff's points haul was all the more impressive when you considered that he scored zero in the first four races of the year. When you consider that Muller finished 27 points ahead of him in the final count, there's a case for arguing that Muller was fortunate not to have more than Tarquini to worry about in the final showdown.

"We could have won it this year," said Huff. "But even with third, I'm chuffed to bits".

It should have been a better season across the board for Chevrolet, but bad luck often intervened. Menu was routinely quick but very often found himself on the receiving end of a rival's out-of-control car, meaning that all the good work done by earning three wins was undone by a string of DNFs.

Rob Huff (Chevrolet) leads a pack of cars in Brno © XPB

Meanwhile, third driver Nicola Larini had the distinction of being the only works driver in the championship not to pick up a win during the season. Still, Menu's race one victory in Macau and Huff's success in the second race of that weekend meant that the now-superseded Lacetti model ended its final round with two wins.

Triple world champion Andy Priaulx was again the fastest of the BMWs, but while he mathematically remained in the title hunt until the final couple of rounds, he was realistically out of the picture several races earlier.

As was the case with Muller at SEAT, the strongest card in Priaulx's hand was consistency rather than speed. There were weekends where the BMW 320si run by Bart Mampaey's Team BMW UK outfit looked slightly off the pace of their Schnitzer stablemates, but Priaulx was quite often able to claw some of the difference back through pure race craft.

For outright pace, the man to watch in the BMW camp was usually Augusto Farfus, but all too often an excellent qualifying performance was wasted at the first corner.

The other story of the year was the rise of the underdogs. Despite there being no less than 13 proper factory cars in the field, two smaller teams managed to sneak under the radar and pinch wins.