Ben Spies claimed victory in race two of the FIM Superbike World Championship meeting at Monza.

He bounced back from his opening-race disappointment earlier on.

The American led from start to finish to cross the line 2.665 seconds ahead of race one winner Michel Fabrizio, with Ryuichi Kiyonari coming home third.

The victory was even sweeter for Spies as championship leader Noriyuki Haga crashed out at the end of the third lap to see his advantage at the top of the standings cut.

Britain's Jonathan Rea finished in fourth ahead of Max Biaggi, while two more British riders, Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam, completed the top seven.

There had, though, been disappointment for Spies in the opening race of the day - which had to be restarted twice after two crashed at the first chicane of lap one - as he ran out of fuel just metres from the line when he looked nailed on for victory, allowing Fabrizio to come through to claim his first race win.

Haga finished second and Kiyonari third, while Spies eventually had to settle for 15th.

"That was a tough pill to swallow," he said on www.crash.net. "You can only carry so much fuel, and this is a long track and we run at full throttle so much that unfortunately we ran out at the end."

And the American revealed he approached race two differently to ensure he did not run into similar problems.

"I definitely rode the warm-up laps differently and short-shifted the bike late in the race to make sure I could make it to the finish," he added.

"The bike could have run faster the entire race, but I wanted to make sure we brought it home. The Yamaha guys regrouped after race one, figured things out and it was great to end the weekend on a high note."

Haga's crash in the second race enabled Spies to close the gap on his championship rival to 54 points.

He said: "Hopefully Nori is OK. Having him suffer a crash is not the way I'd hope to stay in the championship."