EDDIE IRVINE made it two podium finishes in a row with a measured drive to third place behind Heinz Harald Frentzen and Michael Schumacher in yesterday's San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, much to the delight of the vast partisan crowd.

Jordan driver Giancarlo Fisichella scored his first ever world championship points, coming in fourth while his teammate, Ralph Schumacher's strong performance ended in retirement.

Afterwards a smiling Irvine said: "I had an awesome start - even if I say so myself; but there was nowhere to go. I had to back off a little; but still made up a few places by the first corner. The car felt good in the race - it was better on the first set of tyres than on the other two."

The four world championship points for third place moved the Irishman into joint third place in the world championship table. Irvine is not keen to talk about the flags issue - the Union Jack being hoisted over his podium position - except to say that the FIA had told him that they use the flag of the country of the driver's passport.

Irvine's former team mate in the Eddie Jordan F3000 team of 1990, Frentzen, stood on top of the Grand Prix podium for the first time. "It's a fantastic feeling to win. I said that my season would really start at Imola and it has."

After trailing Villeneuve and Schumacher up to the first series of pit stops, Frentzen put in a short series of quick laps which allowed him to emerge from his own first stop narrowly ahead of Schumacher and several seconds in front of Villeneuve.

He needed to work hard to resist the Ferrari's attempts to pass in the complex of bends between Tamburello and Tosa, but he was gradually able to pull away into a lead that later cushioned him against Schumacher's final assault.

As for Damon Hill and the Arrows team, it was difficult to know where disaster ended and humiliation began. Hill began from the pit lane and was clearly in an angry mood when he made an ill judged attempt to pass Shinji Nakano for 17th place at the Variante Bassa on the 11th lap, running into the Japanese driver's tail and sending them both into the sand. The stewards later gave the world champion a suspended one race ban.