Race: Wilson on brink of title

The Hungarian round of the series was always destined to be short on action with the meandering Budapest track offering very few opportunities to pass. And after taking pole on Friday, Wilson said that 'overtaking would be difficult', but then that was exactly what he wanted. The Nordic ace led from start to finish allowing him to take his championship lead over Webber to 20 points with only two rounds to go.

Red Bull Jr driver Ricardo Mauricio finished a well-deserved second, while Silverstone winner Sebastien Bourdais took full advantage of Webber's late lapse in concentration to take the final podium slot.

After getting the run on Webber down to the first corner Wilson quickly pulled into the lead, and stayed there. However, despite building a 10-second lead and holding it throughout, it was a different picture from behind the wheel.

"The last four laps were the hardest I have ever done," said Wilson, despite the fact that title rival Webber had spun off. "For the last two laps I had finished my drinks bottle, my mouth got dry and the nerves took over. It's the first time I've been really nervous in a car.

"The conditions were very difficult. Every time you just touched a pedal the car just moved around. But my car was so fantastic you could feel the grip and it made life so much easier."

While Wilson did absolutely everything right, Webber on the other hand did not - and unfortunately the Super Nova ace paid the price. The Australian started from second on the grid and always knew that being on the dirty side of the track could pose problems. It did, and Webber got bogged down with wheelspin at the start, and found himself behind Mauricio and Tomas Enge at the exit of the first corner.

He bided his time and stayed close to Enge, but despite showing his nose on various occasions it looked to be a fruitless task. Until on lap 25 the Czech ran wide on the long final corner and Webber dived inside. Enge desperately turned in to try and hold onto his place, but it was all in vain and despite contact, Webber pulled away and Enge later received a stop and go penalty for his trouble and finished 11th.

Mauricio was the only man to hold a candle to Wilson, but he was never really a threat. The Brazilian started from third place, moved up to second at the start and there he stayed to take his best ever result in F3000.

"This feels really good," said Mauricio, who replaced Antonio Garcia in the Red Bull squad earlier this year. "Since I've come back, I've done so little testing and so few races, yet I've been in the points three times."

Bourdais was another to play the waiting game and it was a tactic that worked perfectly. The Frenchman was fifth at the end of the first lap, but made up two places by the time he took the flag purely through the mistakes of first Enge and then Webber.

"I started on the dirty side of the track and did all I could do," said Bourdais. "But I was still fifth into the first corner. Then I decided to wait until later and hope that others made mistakes."

Patrick Freisacher made it two Red Bull cars in the top four with a solid fourth place after muscling his way past Darren Manning early in the race. The Arden driver took a trip across the gravel some 10 laps after losing a place to Freisacher and with the chance of any points out the window, he decided to come in for new tyres and use the afternoon as an extended test session.

Giorgio Pantano finished fifth after fighting his way up from 11th on the grid, while Bas Leinders took the final point-scoring slot in sixth. Antonio Pizzonia, who won last time out in Germany, started ahead of both Pantano and Leinders and could have taken some more points today. However, the Brazilian's Petrobras Jr car suffered front suspension damage in the first corner and he was forced to retire.

Wilson's win has secured the teams' title for the Nordic squad and leaves him 20 points clear at the top of the drivers' standings. With only one point required in Spa in two weeks' time to make the title his, it would be bold move to bet against him.

"It'd be nice to get a few more wins [before the end of the season]," he said. "But I'm just trying to take it all in..."

For full Hungary race results, click here.