Gabriele Tarquini secured victory in the second World Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Monza as SEAT moved a step closer to securing the 2008 titles.

Tarquini's win, allied to his second place finish in race one, ensured his keeps the pressure on team-mate Yvan Muller as the WTCC heads away from Europe for the final two rounds of the year. Race one winner Muller holds a nine point lead over Tarquini, while Rob Huff in third is now over 30 points away from the lead. SEAT also leads BMW by 54 points on the back of its second 1-2 of the day.

Having taken pole position thanks to a penalty handed to Rickard Rydell, Alex Zanardi held the lead at the start with Jordi Gene and Nicola Larini second and third, while Tarquini had jumped straight up to fourth off the line. He took third on lap two and was followed past Larini by Yvan Muller.

Gene took the lead on lap two from Zanardi and the Italian lost out on lap three as he was hung out to dry as Muller and Larini both came past, with Larini also jumping back ahead of the points leader.

Gene duly allowed Tarquini to take the lead mid-way through the race and the Italian was able to take the win ahead of Gene and Larini, despite the Chevrolet man doing his best to keep pace with the two diesel Leons.

Yvan Muller followed up his race one win with fourth place, while Alain Menu, Tiago Monteiro, Zanardi and Augusto Farfus rounded out the points scorers; the latter having come from the back of the field after his race one retirement.

For Rob Huff and Andy Priaulx, both of whom retain hopes of lifting the title, there was disappointment as the pair ran into problems which left them to bring up the rear of the field. As a result, SEAT now look favourites to secure both titles in the final rounds of the year in Japan and Macau.