Heidfeld close to title joy

Heidfeld dominated the sixth round of the championship in Austria to score his fourth win of the season and open up a 26-point championship lead with four races to go.

If he repeats his 1998 Hockenheim success next weekend, he will have secured the crown earlier than any other man in history.

'I made one of my best starts of the year and just tried to control the pace,' said the 22-year-old German.

'My car just became better and better as the race wore on and I felt totally in control. I would never say a race was easy, but this was one of my more comfortable wins.'

It was the seventh victory of Heidfeld's F3000 career and he has now equalled 1998 champion Juan Pablo Montoya as the most successful driver in the formula's history.

Frenchmen Soheil Ayari (Oreca) and Nicolas Minassian (Kid Jensen Racing) finished second and third, but many of the leading qualifiers were delayed by a multiple accident at the first corner.

Norberto Fontana (Fortec) and Frank Montagny (DAMS) dropped almost to the tail of the field before recovering to finish eighth and 12th.

One man who survived the chaos was Dane Jason Watt (Super Nova), who brushed wheels with Montagny before going on to take fourth place - only his second points finish of the season.

Italian Andrea Piccini (Kid Jensen Racing) followed Watt across the line to score his first points, and the best recovery drives of the day came from Gauloises Formula team-mates Stéphane Sarrazin and André Couto.

Starting from the back row, the two men threaded their way through the field to finish sixth and seventh. Front row starter Wolf Henzler (Durango) lost his chance of points when he ran wide on lap two.

Rivals twice hit Justin Wilson, the only British driver in the race, before he eventually spun out of eighth place in the closing stages.

Austrian F3000 result