Imola: Wirdheim takes narrow win

"It was a tough race for me," said Wirdheim. "I got a really perfect start and I thought I was going to pull away and get a gap to Patrick, but I think his tyres were in a better condition than mine, certainly towards the end of the race."

The leaders were a class apart from the rest. Brazilian Ricardo Sperafico was a distant third on his first outing with Coloni, having muscled his way past Tonio Liuzzi at the first corner. Driving the second Red Bull car, Liuzzi finished a solid fourth on his debut in the category, and was thus the best placed rookie. Managed by former Lotus boss Peter Collins, he is regarded as a hot prospect by many.

He was pushed hard in the closing stages by Enrico Toccacelo in the Super Nova entry, which this year serves as the Jordan junior team. The points scoring positions were completed by Yannick Schroeder (Superfund/ISR), Raffaele Giammaria (Durango) and last minute nominee Rob Nguyen (BCN).

Former Champ Car driver Townsend Bell did an impressive job on his F3000 debut in the second entry. he was running fifth when he was punted into a spin by Durango's Giorgio Pantano. The American dropped a lot of places, but managed to recover to ninth, while Pantano was out on the spot with steering damage.

The two British men were out of luck. After landing a one-off ride at Den Bla Avis at the last minute, British F3 champion Robbie Kerr acquitted himself well in qualifying, but was denied a race when the fuel pump failed even before the cars left the pitlane. German F3 champ Gary Paffett was running well in midfield when he was knocked off the road by Derek Hill, eventually finishing 14th after a trip through the gravel. Hill finished 15th after a stop for a new nose.