MULLER & SEAT RULE THE WTCC IN 2008
18 November 2008

SEAT's Yvan Muller (right) emerged as Champion of the 2008 World Touring Cars Championship (WTCC) after two tantalizing races at the Guia Circuit in Macau.

The French driver compiled three victories and a further five podium finishes throughout the season to secure his very first WTCC title. Muller was third in the first race with Jordi Gené and Gabriele Tarquini finishing sixth and seventh.

The second race was quite eventful, as a cause of which Jordi Gené (left, leading) was forced to quit, and later Gabriele Tarquini, while he was having victory at reach.

Muller (below) grabbed second to attain his first-ever WTCC title, with team mate Rickard Rydell fourth after managing to move up from the back of the grid.

SEAT closed the season in the best possible way, with the second title in 2008 through Muller, and the runner-up position of Tarquini (above left). Prior to the Macau Grand Prix, SEAT has already sealed the WTCC manufacturers' crown at the previous round in Okayama, Japan.

BMW national teams were out of the running for Championship titles at the Macau Grand Prix.

However, ex-WTCC Champion Andy Priaulx (left) was again the best-placed BMW driver in the overall classification. He ended the season in fourth, having scored 81 points.

BMW Team Germany driver Augusto Farfus (above left) picked up 63 points to finish sixth in the Drivers’ Championship. His team mate, Jörg Müller (above right), ended three points further back, in seventh.

While, BMW Team Italy-Spain’s two drivers, Félix Porteiro (ES) and Alessandro Zanardi (IT, right), followed in 10th and 13th respectively. In the manufacturers' side of things, BMW with 274 points was classified second behind SEAT.

Alain Menu and Rob Huff successfully closed the four-season Lacetti-chapter for Chevrolet in the WTCC by scoring two wins in the streets of Macau, the jewel in the crown of the WTCC.

While Menu (left) dominated race 1 from start to finish, Huff was lucky to steer clear of the last-lap mayhem in race 2 and move up from fourth to first in the matter of a few corners from the finish.

Team mate Nicola Larini had a less successful weekend, but Max Orido used his knowledge of the track to finish seventh in race 2 after having started last in race 1.

Orido (right) became the first Japanese driver in the WTCC history to score points.

With the race 2 victory, Huff (left) secured third overall in the WTCC Drivers standings, the highest position a Chevrolet driver has ever finished. Over its four-year career, the Chevrolet Lacetti scored 14 wins, 37 podium finishes and a total of 652 points towards the Manufacturers’ Championship.

Of these 14 wins, two were triple victories where Chevrolet wiped out the podium. Eight pole positions and nine fastest race laps complete the impressive statistics for Chevrolet in the WTCC.

With the Lacetti now officially retired from active duty, the RML team will focus its attention on further developing the Chevrolet Cruze for the 2009 WTCC season which will start in Brazil in early March. After tests at MIRA, Guadix in Spain and Estoril in Portugal, the Cruze will be further tested at different tracks in southern Europe.

N.Technology came very close to securing its second win of the season in the finale, but it wasn't to be.

After leading for seven of the nine laps, James Thompson in a Honda Accord Euro R (right) was involved in an incident that forced him into the barriers, less than two laps from the chequered flag and a possible race win.