The 2006 WTCC season in figures

The 2006 FIA World Touring Car Championship is placed in the archives with the same winner as for 2005: Andy Priaulx as Drivers’ champion. However the season was extremely exciting and only the chequered flag at the end of the second and final race in Macau sanctioned Priaulx’s second world title.

50 drivers coming from 17 different countries and three continents, at the wheel of cars built by 7 manufacturers, took part in the championship, for an average participation of 27.5 cars per event.

11 drivers managed to win at least one of the 20 races, with only three of them being capable of winning more than one (Priaulx 5, Jörg Müller 4, Augusto Farfus 3); 16 drivers led at least one lap during the season, 20 achieved podium results and 23 scored championship points.

Priaulx emerged as the most effective man, topping the statistics for race victories (5), pole posititions (3, like Rickard Rydell; Gabriele Tarquini and Jordi Gené took 2 apiece) and laps led (65, or 25.7% of the 253 laps run during the whole season; J. Müller and Farfus led 45 and 39 respectively).

The 20 fastest laps during the races were clocked by 14 different drivers; only Farfus, Tarquini, Alain Menu, Gené and Yvan Muller set more than one fastest lap during the season.

Only two drivers were given drive through penalties: Yvan Muller and Jordi Gené, both due to jump starts. 16 drivers were dropped 10 grid positions due to engine changes or incidents; Luca Rangoni had the dubious honour to top this list having been dropped 30 positions.