Undignified exits for Sperafico, Pantano.

Bjorn Wirdheim's two closest championship challengers missed out on an opportunity to keep touch with the Swede after effectively taking each other out of the Monaco round of the FIA F3000 Championship.

Ricardo Sperafico and Giorgio Pantano qualified second and third on the grid behind the current points leader and, while Wirdheim made good his early race escape, battled closely for the eight points on offer for second place. The Coloni driver was clearly struggling with his after the opening twenty laps, however, and Pantano, deciding that he was being held up, forced his way through at Anthony Noghes, making contact with Sperafico in his haste to resume the chase.

The Brazilian's problems were exacerbated by the brush and, after seeing Enrico Toccacelo and Vitantonio Liuzzi go through, decided to make a pit-stop for attention to his car, which was later discovered to have suffered wheel and tyre damage.

He eventually rejoined one lap down, but with new tyres, and quickly set about lapping about a second faster than the race leaders as he attempted to salvage at least a point from an attrition-filled event.

After the safety car - brought about by a clash between Toccacelo and Liuzzi - had been withdrawn, Sperafico found himself once more behind Italian adversary Pantano - and decided to unlap himself. Having hounded the Durango car for several laps, the Brazilian decided there was enough of a gap down the inside at Mirabeau to make a pass - a move which resulted in Pantano nosing into the outside tyre barrier and Sperafico receiving the black flag.

The Brazilian and his Coloni team were incensed by the penalty, which they felt was harsh considering the contact between the two cars earlier in the race.

"Unlike Pantano's overtaking, Ricardo made an honest, correct manoeuvre, without touching and/or damaging his opponent's car," Coloni's post-race release claimed, as the Italian team watched Wirdheim move 18 points clear in the title race.