James Thompson turned pole position at Valencia into his and Alfa Romeo's first victory of the season yesterday, the Briton claiming a stunning double win at the wheel of his N.Technology-run Alfa 156 in the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

The rolling start for race one on Sunday morning immediately saw Tarquini making contact with the side of Monteiro's car. The two veered off in opposite directions. As Monteiro was sent across the track he collected Robert Huff. In a domino effect Roberto Colciago of SEAT Sport Italia, and BMW Team Italy-Spain drivers Félix Porteiro and Alex Zanardi also found themselves in the gravel. They all retired. Seconds later Augusto Farfus of BMW Team Germany spun and rejoined in 17th.

The race was resumed at the end of lap 4 and while the front runners kept position there was a shuffle towards the back. Luca Rangoni (eventual winner of the independents' race and 7th overall), overtook Pierre-Yves Corthals. Moments after, Tom Coronel and Jörg Müller also passed the Belgian. Müller promoted himself to 8th over the next few laps by overtaking Coronel and Stefano D'Aste. Meanwhile, Larini was defending against Yvan Muller. Lap 12 saw a further pile-up after Coronel hit the back of D'Aste's BMW 320si which also caught Farfus. All three cars sped into the gravel and while D'Aste crossed the line 12th, Coronel and Farfus finished 21st and 22nd respectively.

In undoubtedly the best race of the season so far, James Thompson scored his second victory of Sunday in race two. He stormed through from eighth on the grid. Jörg Müller crossed the line second while Andy Priaulx claimed the final podium position. Yvan Muller achieved SEAT Sport's best result by coming home 4th. Chevrolet's Nicola Larini had another strong point-scoring race finishing 5th overall.
 

Luca Rangoni had a great start and coming into the second corner he was in the lead. By the second corner however Müller had reclaimed the position. Priaulx had promoted himself to third by overtaking Michel Jourdain's SEAT León. The Mexican got a bad start and was overtaken by Thompson on lap one. Alain Menu tried to capitalise and briefly went through but Jourdain reclaimed 7th place.

Lap three was one of battles with Yvan Muller and Priaulx fighting for third, and Thompson with Gené in his sights. Priaulx defended against Muller while Thompson overtook the Gené. Muller then came under fire from the Alfa man and lost 4th place to him. On lap four Priaulx overtook Rangoni for the podium position. Rangoni then dropped down to finish seventh but still claimed the independent win. It was not an easy task however as his Valencian rookie team-mate Sergio Hernández was challenging all the way and eventually finished a remarkable eighth to score a championship point.

While Müller and Priaulx contested the lead Thompson overtook Rangoni for third and caught up on the pair. At the end of the pit straight on lap seven the Briton edged past Priaulx and then he overtook Müller on the following lap. On the last lap Menu suffered a technical problem and dropped from 6th to 14th; the position behind team-mate Rob Huff who had also slipped out of the point zone after he went wide on lap 8.