Honda's Norbert Michelisz was declared winner of the second WTCC race at Motegi, which was suspended early after increasingly heavy rain.

The race was the second in as many rounds to be ended early, with the second race at the Ningbo circuit in China a fortnight ago also called off due to heavy rainfall.

Unlike in China, however, cars were allowed to race after an initial two laps behind the safety car and during that spell Michelisz eked out a small advantage over the Volvo of Nicky Catsburg.

A total of four green flag laps were completed before the safety car returned to the track on lap seven as the rain intensified, with polesitter Michelisz leading the following snake of cars in his Honda.

The race was formally stopped on lap 11 of an extended 15-lap schedule, with the countback result taking in the first nine laps.

That allowed full points to be awarded, meaning Michelisz moves into second place in the championship, 16.5 points behind Thed Bjork.

Volvo driver Bjork completed one of just a handful of overtakes during the green flag running, eventually getting the better of Ryo Michigami's factory Civic after a squabble along the start/finish straight.

Michigami then squirmed off at Turn 9 and beached himself in the gravel, before being dug out.

The Japanese driver returned to the pits after recovering to the circuit, and was the weekend's only retiree.

Catsburg and teammate Nestor Girolami completed the podium in their Volvos, while Esteban Guerrieri backed up his third place finish in the opening race with a fourth to complete a strong weekend as stand-in for Tiago Monteiro.

Bjork was classified fifth ahead of the leading Citroen of Mehdi Bennani and the RC Motorsport Ladas of Yann Ehrlacher and Kevin Gleason.

Bennani's Sebastien Loeb Racing teammates John Filippi and Tom Chilton completed the points.

Race 2 Results:

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Gap
1	Norbert Michelisz	Honda
2	Nicky Catsburg	Volvo	0.392
3	Nestor Girolami	Volvo	1.798
4	Esteban Guerrieri	Chevrolet	3.306
5	Thed Björk	Volvo	5.554
6	Mehdi Bennani	Citroën	6.196
7	Yann Ehrlacher	LADA	7.063
8	Kevin Gleason	LADA	7.537
9	John Filippi	Citroën	7.911
10	Tom Chilton	Citroën	8.764
11	Rob Huff	Citroën	9.633
12	Kris Richard	Chevrolet	11.544
13	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet	12.472
14	Daniel Nagy	Honda	13.254
15	Filipe C. De Souza	LADA	14.899
16	Zsolt Szabo	Honda	16.640
	Ryo Michigami	Honda	6 laps