BMW reveal driver line-up

Priaulx will drive for the RBM team that he took the 2004 European title and the 2005 World title with. He will again be joined under the BMW banner by Dirk Muller and Jorg Muller, who will drive for Schnitzer for the fifth consecutive year.

Alex Zanardi, who famously won his first WTCC race at Oschersleben last year, will again race for Roberto Ravaglia's ROAL Motorsport under the team's Italy-Spain banner. Zanardi will be joined by former Spanish F3 champion Marcel Costa, who will make his WTCC debut this season.

All five drivers will use the new BMW 320si E90 model, which replaces the E46 model used the past two seasons.

"In 2005, we won everything there was to win in WTCC," says BMW Motorsport director Mario Theissen. "Obviously it's our goal to repeat these achievements with our BMW 320si, entered for the 2006 season, which is a newly developed car. With our driver line-up and the new car we should be well-prepared for the tasks ahead of us."

In addition to the five 'works' cars, German squad Wiechers-Sport will run an independent team in a brace of last year's E46s. Italian Diego Romanini and Ireland's Emmet O'Brien will drive the cars.