Tarquini completes SEAT clean sweep

The Italian was subject of an investigation by the stewards after he was judged to have gained an advantage at the first chicane.

But unlike Seat stablemate Rickard Rydell, who was given a 30s penalty for a similar offence in the first race, Tarquini was allowed to keep his victory and instead takes a five-place grid penalty at the next round in Okayama, Japan.

Tarquini, who started from seventh on the grid, had worked his way up to third place behind teammate Jordi Gene within the first three laps.

At that point the pair had the BMW of Alessandro Zanardi to contend with, but the Seats were clearly quicker and the Italian was only able to hold the Leons off for three laps before the inevitable pass came.

Once in front, Gene held the lead until mid-distance, where he allowed Tarquini to capitalise on a slipstream on the run to the first corner and pick up a couple of extra points to keep his title hopes alive.

There was a lot of jostling behind them, but eventually it was Nicola Larini who picked up the final podium place ahead of the Seat driven by championship leader Yvan Muller.

Zanardi was the first BMW across the line, albeit in seventh place behind Alain Menu (Chevrolet) and Tiago Monteiro (Seat), and fellow 320si driver Augusto Farfus picked up the final point.

It was a tough outing for some of the other front-runners. Chevrolet's Rob Huff started from the second row but was gradually battered backwards through the field, and his race came to an early end courtesy of damage sustained whilst fighting the BMWs of Jorg Muller and Felix Porteiro.

World champion Andy Priaulx was another whose afternoon ended in disappointment when he suffered problems on the penultimate lap that forced him onto the sidelines.

James Thompson was also in with a shot of a couple of points after a strong drive from the back of the field following the crash in the opening race, but he lost a couple of places when he was knocked wide while fighting Tom Coronel and eventually finished 11th.

Proteam BMW driver Sergio Hernandez inched closer towards the Independents' title with a class win after race one winner Pierre-Yves Corthals's SEAT suffered a mechanical problem on the grid and was unable to take the start.

Pos  Driver                 Car                       Gap
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini      SEAT                 8:18.397
 2.  Jordi Gené             SEAT                 +  0.316
 3.  Nicola Larini          Chevrolet            +  0.646
 4.  Yvan Muller            SEAT                 +  2.780
 5.  Alain Menu             Chevrolet            +  3.056
 6.  Tiago Monteiro         SEAT                 +  8.231
 7.  Alex Zanardi           BMW                  +  9.522
 8.  Augusto Farfus         BMW                  + 11.901
 9.  Rickard Rydell         SEAT                 + 12.639
10.  Jörg Müller            BMW                  + 13.456
11.  James Thompson         Honda                + 14.662
12.  Felix Porteiro         BMW                  + 14.779
13.  Sergio Hernández       BMW                  + 15.621
14.  Stefano D'Aste         BMW                  + 16.121
15.  Kristian Poulsen       BMW                  + 24.517
16.  Franz Engstler         BMW                  + 24.949
17.  Manabu Orido           Chevrolet            + 31.444
18.  George Tanev           BMW                  + 35.754
19.  Jaap van Lagen         Lada                 + 35.953
20.  Duarte Felix da Costa  SEAT                 + 43.753
21.  Ibrahim Okyay          BMW                  + 44.083
22.  Viktor Shapovalov      Lada                 + 45.160
23.  Kirill Ladygin         Lada                 + 47.874
24.  Tom Coronel            SEAT                 +  1 lap
25.  Andy Priaulx           BMW                  + 2 laps
26.  Robert Huff            Chevrolet            + 2 laps

Not classified

     Yuki Taniguchi         Honda                  5 laps
     Andrey Romanov         BMW                    2 laps
     Takayuki Aoki          BMW                    2 laps
     Pierre-Yves Corthals   SEAT                   0 laps

Fastest lap, Menu 2:00.390 on lap 5