Brno 2008: Tarquini wins to extend lead.

Gabriele Tarquini has extended his lead in the World Touring Car Championship to 16 points with victory in the second race of the weekend at Brno.

The SEAT Sport driver held off the challenge of race one Alex Zanardi through the closing lap of the race to secure a valuable victory that gives him a handy advantage over Yvan Muller in the standings ahead of the next race meeting in Estoril.

Tarquini jumped up to second at the start of the race behind Muller but made light work of getting past the Frenchman into the lead and set about establishing an early advantage as the majority of the field got held up behind third-placed James Thompson, who lacked speed in the N.Technology Honda but made up for it by making the car as wide as possible.

Zanardi meanwhile had slipped back at the start having lined up in eighth place but made his way back through the pack with a series of strong overtaking moves before quickly reeling in Tarquini's SEAT until he was on the back of the Italian in the final corners.

Despite briefly getting alongside his countryman, Zanardi couldn't make the move stick and instead had to settle for second place, still giving him a fine tally of 18 points from the two Czech races.

Rob Huff ended up completing the podium for Chervrolet after taking advantage of the melee that took place around him which saw team-mate Alain Menu climb up to second place before being pushed off by Yvan Muller, and which saw cars going as many as five abreast as they tried to find a way past Thomspon, who would be hit by seemingly every car that managed to pass him as he slipped down to tenth place by the finish.

Outside the podium positions, Augusto Farfus took fourth place ahead of race one runner-up Felix Porteiro - whose BMW showed the battle scars of his action-packed race - while Yvan Muller, Menu and Jorg Muller rounded out the points. Defending champion Andy Priaulx endured a weekend to forget when he could only manage ninth place, leaving him with a zero score on the weekend he celebrated becoming an MBE.

In the Independents' category, Stefano D'Aste looked well set to take he win before he was hit by fellow BMW driver Franz Engstler. The incident allowed D'Aste's Proteam team-mate Sergio Hernandez to take the win.