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SEAT Sport's Gabriele Tarquini backed up his second place finish in race one with victory in race two of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Monza to help boost his title hopes.

Tarquini overtook Jordi Gene, who won the second race in Monza last year, with a couple of laps to go relegating his team-mate to second place.

But Tarquini did receive a penalty for the next round of the Championship in Japan for cutting the first chicane after the start and failing to give back the advantage.

The stewards concluded that he gained an advantage with the manoeuvre and decided to impose a penalty of five grid positions for the first race of the next event in Okayama.

Tarquini came from seventh on the grid to challenge the leaders on the very first lap.

BMW Team Italy-Spain driver Alessandro Zanardi started from pole but was immediately challenged by an advancing Gene.

Gene got past him on the first lap and scampered away as Zanardi was swallowed up by the chasing pack.

Tarquini, Nicola Larini and Yvan Muller overtook him all in one go as the polesitter eventually fell to seventh position.

Behind the leading SEAT cars, Chevrolet's Robert Huff experienced a few problems, beginning the race in third but slipping back by the end of the first lap.

He then overtook the struggling Andy Priaulx before fading and eventually tangling with Augusto Farfus to end up on the grass and limp back to the pits.

Priaulx was also forced to end his race in the pits after he went straight at the first chicane in an attempt to overtake Muller.

Following another good start and a strong race, Larini took the final podium place escaping the problems he suffered in the first race.

Muller came up from eighth position to take fourth due to some well judged overtaking manoeuvres.

Alain Menu finished fifth despite a poor first race, coming up the field from row six.

Tiago Monteiro took sixth place, followed closely by Zanardi, who suffered tyre problems which greatly affected his pace.

Another BMW drive in trouble was Joerg Müller, whose car suffered considerable damage at the front as he lost control and hit Felix Porteiro, who spun and lost positions.

Andrey Romanov also spun at Parabolica and was t-boned by Japanese driver Takayuki Aoki.

Pierre-Yves Corthals failed to start in the second race, so Independents Trophy victory went to Sergio Hernandez ahead of fellow BMW drivers Stefano D'Aste, Kristian Poulsen and Franz Engstler, who finished in that order.

Young Bulgarian George Tanev finished fifth, his best result of the season.

Eurosport