From pole, the Swedish driver lost out to the fast-starting Honda of Tiago Monteiro at the start, but was able to retake the lead at the Parabolica at the end of the second lap.

Bjork then began to pull away from Monteiro, who was defending from Munnich Citroen driver Rob Huff to hold on to second, followed by the Volvo of Nicky Catsburg, the Honda of Norbert Michelisz, and the third Volvo of Nestor Girolami.

Race 1 winner Tom Chilton was running in eighth place before a drive problem forced him to stop at the exit of Ascari, which meant the safety car was deployed and bunched up the field.

When the race resumed, Bjork began to pull away in the lead from Monteiro, who was still defending from Huff and Catsburg, while Michelisz fell behind and was in his own battle with Girolami.

Bjork held on to comfortably take his second victory in the WTCC by 2.174 seconds, with Monteiro taking key points in the championship with second.

Third place for Huff moves the Briton up to joint-fifth in the drivers’ standings.

Catsburg finished right behind in fourth, while on the final lap, Girolami got a run on Michelisz at the Parabolica and pulled alongside the Hungarian to snatch fifth at the finish by just 0.001s.

Mehdi Bennani finished in seventh in his SLR Citroen, with the Chevrolet of Esteban Guerrieri, the Lada of Yann Ehrlacher and the third SLR Citroen of John Filippi completing the top 10.

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Thed Björk	Volvo	12 laps
2	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	2.174
3	Rob Huff	Citroën	2.779
4	Nicky Catsburg	Volvo	3.269
5	Nestor Girolami	Volvo	6.180
6	Norbert Michelisz	Honda	6.181
7	Mehdi Bennani	Citroën	9.582
8	Esteban Guerrieri	Chevrolet	11.522
9	Yann Ehrlacher	LADA	11.877
10	John Filippi	Citroën	12.077
11	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet	12.836
12	Aurelien Panis	Honda	16.637
13	Kevin Gleason	LADA	19.306
Ret	Daniel Nagy	Honda	6 laps
Ret	Tom Chilton	Citroën	8 laps
Ret	Ryo Michigami	Honda	8 laps

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes