Crashes mar Monaco F3000.

As might have been expected in a street race involving young drivers keen to make an impression on the Formula One bosses who may have been watching, it was only their over-enthusiasm that caught the eye.

Monaco is not the ideal place for adrenaline-fuelled up-and-comers to strut their stuff, particularly if qualifying has not dealt a potential frontrunner the best of hands, and the annual F3000 race around the Principality again provided its fair share of incident.

The action began as soon as the first corner, when third-placed Darren Manning ran into the back of second-placed countryman Justin Wilson, removing his Arden car's front wing but, remarkably, inflicting very little damage on Wilson's Nordic example. Manning pitted for a new nose, and later spun out avoiding Antonio Pizzonia's accident at Tabac, while Wilson continued his impressive run of finishes by taking second behind eventual winner Mark Webber.

Not more than a mile after the first incident, Gabriele Varano, Andrea Piccini and Derek Hill were eliminated in a traffic jam at Grand Hotel hairpin instigated by Jaime Melo. The Brazilian recovered to finish at the tail of the field, but damage sustained in the incident forced both the Durango driver and Piccini's European Minardi team-mate David Saelens into the pits for repairs.

Saelens then rendered the work pointless by running over the back of Giorgio Pantano at the Swimming Pool and burying his Lola in the barriers. His Italian target responded by punting Gabriele Lancieri - who had recovered to 13th after stalling on the warm-up lap - into retirement at Grand Hotel, and later spinning himself onto the sidelines at Rascasse.

In between those two incidents, Dino Morelli ran out of room at the Nouvelle Chicane, taking to the escape road, and pre-empting the incident which brought out the safety car for the second time, when Pizzonia and Manning spun in unison between Tabac and Rascasse.

The restart was heralded by Joel Camathias smiting the barriers at Rascasse and KTR team-mate Bas Leinders following suit one lap later, when he rode his car over the back of race-long rival Mario Haberfeld.

Haberfeld, slightly delayed in the incident, then turned in on Patrick Friesacher at Grand as the Austrian attempted to make up for a trip down the Ste Devote escape road, all but ending the race in the manner it had started - with traffic backing up at the hairpin.

Despite this, 13 runners - including Haberfeld and Friesacher - were classified as finishing, out of the 24 who started. Mark Webber won by an eight-tenths margin over Justin Wilson and returnee Stephane Sarrazin but, for the casual race fan - of which Monaco was full - the action was further down the field.