Multi-charge ignition system

An ignition system and method of multicharge ignition are presented. The system comprisies an ignition coil (16) having primary (18) and secondary (20) windings and a control unit (30) configured to operate charging and discharging phases of the ignition coil (16) by actuation of a switching device (22) in order to create a first spark followed by a plurality of subsequent sparks at prescribed timings (t s1 ...t s4) . The control unit (30) is further configured to, during a respective spark-interval (T si ), monitor the energy level in the secondary winding (20) and stop the discharge phase and operate a charging phase, at the moment when the remaining time until the next prescribed timing (t si ) corresponds to the time required to charge the primary winding (18) to a prescribed energy level (I P _ tgt ).