Darren Manning came close to achieving his first F3000 win at Imola, in an exciting battle with pole sitter Mark Webber.

Darren qualified in third position and took little time to take second at the start of the race. As he attempted to pull alongside Mark Webber for first, there was little room for both cars, even less so as Webber squeezed the Arden International driver onto the grass.

He did well to maintain his momentum, but lost a couple of places and had to fight hard to regain them. He got back into second and chased Webber hard to keep the gap under a second.

An incident mid way through the race meant that the safety car was brought out and, when the race restarted on lap 13, Manning looked for a suitable overtaking opportunity to get past Webber. The opportunity never came and Darren had to settle for second, with six championship points in the bag.

He said: "I'm slightly disappointed not to have got past Webber on the first corner, I made a good start, the car felt good and I'm sure we had the speed advantage. But once you're behind another car, it's difficult to maintain that advantage. 

"However, I came away from the weekend with my first championship points of the season and am lying third overall, so I'm pleased with the result."

Darren continues his bid for the F3000 championship at Barcelona  on April 28/29th.