The 2008 World Touring Car Championship season was the fifth

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sin ...

season, the fourth since its 2005 return. It began on 2 March, and ended on 16 November, after twenty-four races. The championship, which was open to

Super 2000 Cars Super 2000 is an FIA powertrain specification used in the World Rally Championship, the British Touring Car Championship, the World Touring Car Championship, and other touring car championships. The engines were originally 2 L naturally aspirate ...

and

Diesel 2000 Diesel 2000 is an FIA circuit racing classification for modified production based touring cars using turbodiesel engines. Like its counterpart, Super 2000, the category is open to large-scale series production touring cars modified by a kit. Car ...

Cars, was composed of the FIA World Touring Car Championship for Drivers and the FIA World Touring Car Championship for Manufacturers. Frenchman

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969 in Altkirch, Haut-Rhin) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 with Chevro ...

won the Drivers title by 26 points from

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair (furniture), ...

team-mate

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He ...

, with

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Robert Huff Robert Peter "Rob" Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British professional racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) driving for Zengő Motorsport. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the ...

finishing third just a point behind Tarquini. The Manufacturers Championship was awarded to SEAT.

Teams and drivers

Tom Coronel and Augusto Farfus 2008 Japan

The full season entry list. Note: Macau-based RPM Racing Team had planned to race one

Toyota Altezza The is a compact executive car sold by Lexus, a luxury division of Toyota since 1999. The IS was originally sold under the nameplate in Japan from 1998 (the word ''Altezza'' is Italian for 'height' or 'highness'). The IS was introduced as an e ...

and one

Honda Civic Type-R The is a series of high-performance hatchback/ sedan models based on the Civic, developed and produced by Honda since September 1997. The first Civic Type R was the third model to receive Honda's Type R badge (after the NSX and Integra). T ...

for Macanese drivers Lei Kit Meng and Jo Rosa Merszei in the final races in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. Although car numbers were allocated to them (#64 for Meng (Toyota Altezza) and #65 for Merszei (Honda Civic)), the FIA Touring Car Bureau rejected the entries because neither of these cars had been homologated by the FIA.

Driver changes

Changed Teams *

Olivier Tielemans Olivier Tielemans (born June 1, 1984 in Weert) is a Dutch race car driver. His career started back in 1991 when he came 4th in the Dutch Kart Championship. Between 1995 and 1997 he raced in the Belgian Kart Championship and became Rookie of The Y ...

: N-Technology → Wiechers-Sport *

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 race in 1997, th ...

: GR Asia → SUNRED Engineering *

Stefano D'Aste Stefano D'Aste (born 26 February 1974 in Genoa) is an Italian auto racing driver. His early racing career included competing on motorcycles and the Monza International Rally. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2004 (wh ...

: Wiechers-Sport → Scuderia Proteam Motorsport Entering WTCC including those who entered one-off rounds in 2007 *

Rickard Rydell Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Champ ...

: No full-time drive → SEAT Sport *

Ibrahim Okyay Ibrahim Okyay (born 1 August 1969) is a Turkish auto racing driver. He is best known for competing in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Racing career Okyay first entered the WTCC in 2006. He competed in just two races at his home circuit o ...

: Turkish Touring Car Championship → Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport *

Viktor Shapovalov Viktor Shapovalov (born 4 March 1965 in Sterlitamak, Bashkir ASSR) is a Russian auto racing driver. Most of his career has been in touring cars, competing in the Russian Touring Car Championship as well as the Dutch Supercar Challenge. In 1998 he ...

: Dutch Supercar Challenge → Russian Bears Motorsport *

Jaap van Lagen Jaap van Lagen (born 22 December 1976 in Ede) is a Dutch racing driver, who is a former competitor in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series and a former Eurocup Megane Trophy champion. He has also raced in the World Touring Car Championship. Racing c ...

: Porsche Supercup → Russian Bears Motorsport *

Franz Engstler Franz Engstler (born 25 July 1961) is a German auto racing driver. Racing career Born in Kempten im Allgäu, Engstler started racing in the European Hillclimbing Championship and the German Long Distance Cup, which he won. From 1988 he competed ...

: Asian Touring Car Series → Liqui Moly Team Engstler * Andrey Romanov: Asian Touring Car Series → Liqui Moly Team Engstler Leaving WTCC *

Michel Jourdain Jr. Michel Jourdain Lascurain, better known as Michel Jourdain Jr. (born September 2, 1976), is a Mexican racecar driver, best known for winning two Champ Car races in 2003. He is the 2020 Super Copa GTM Champion. Formula racing Jourdain started rac ...

: SEAT Sport → No full-time drive *

Roberto Colciago Roberto Colciago (born 4 April 1968) is a racing driver from Saronno, Italy. He has spent most of his career in touring car racing – first in Super Touring and then in Super 2000 – followed by the World Touring Car Championship and cur ...

: SEAT Sport Italia → Italian Endurance Touring Championship *

Emmet O'Brien Emmet O'Brien (born 7 March 1981, in Dublin) is an Irish auto racing driver. Career O'Brien started competing in the Irish Karting championships at a young age, he finished 2nd in the National Irish Formula A karting championship for PCR in 1998 ...

: GR Asia → Danish Touring Car Championship * Maurizio Ceresoli: GR Asia → No full-time drive *

Luca Rangoni Luca Rangoni (born 23 September 1968 in Bologna) is an Italian auto racing driver. He is a married man with one son. Early career Like many racing drivers, Rangoni's first taste of racing was in karts, where he spent four years. He made his deb ...

: Scuderia Proteam Motorsport → Porsche Carrera Cup Italy *

Miguel Freitas Miguel Freitas (born 2 March 1984 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese auto racing driver. Career Freitas competed in the Mégane Trophy Eurocup in 2005 and 2006 for the Racing for Belgium team.http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/4418/career/ Career statisti ...

: Racing for Belgium → SEAT León Supercopa Spain

Calendar

A provisional calendar was released in November, 2007. Sweden was to be included in the calendar for 21 September but the FIA confirmed on 3 May 2008 that the Swedish round at the

Scandinavian Raceway Anderstorp Raceway, previously known as Scandinavian Raceway, is a motorsport race track in Anderstorp (Gislaved Municipality), Sweden and the sole Nordic host of a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, when the Swedish Grand Prix was held ...

was replaced by an Italy round at the revamped

Imola Circuit The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known as Imola, is a motor racing circuit in the town of Imola, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, east of Bologna. It is one of the few major international circuits to run in an an ...

Results and standings

Races

Standings

Drivers' Championship

The final standings in the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship for Drivers were : † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance. Drivers' Championship points were awarded on a 10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1 basis to the first eight finishers in each race.

Manufacturers' Championship

Manufacturers' Championship points were awarded on a 10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1 basis to the first eight finishers in each race. However, only the results of the best two cars for each manufacturer were taken into account.

Yokohama Independents' Trophy

The Yokohama Independents' Trophy uses a similar system to the Drivers’ Championship, however double points are awarded at Macau.

Yokohama Teams' Trophy

All the teams taking part in any of the rounds of the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship were eligible to score points for the Yokohama Teams' Trophy. Points were awarded to the two best classified cars of each team, providing they were driven by Independent drivers. All other cars of that same team were considered invisible as far as scoring points was concerned.

References

External links

* FIA World Touring Car Championship official website: Archives *
2008 Entry list
*
2008 Race results
*
2008 Championship point standings
*
2008 Independents' Trophies point standings

Retrieved from www.teamdan.com on 1 January 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:2008 World Touring Car Championship Season