Pizzonia's title, Monteiro's race.

Brazilian driver Antonio Pizzonia won the Green Flag British F3 Championship at Spa Francorchamps, but he could nothing about visiting race winner Tiago Monteiro.

The title favourite finished second in the penultimate race in the championship to Portuguese driver Monteiro, but the result was enough to give the highly-rated Brazilian the crown with one round still to go.

''I am very happy,'' Pizzonia said, ''I would like to have won today, but Monteiro was very fast and I still had to fight Narain Karthikeyan for second place.''

The result marks a second successive championship for his team, Manor Motorsport, in only its second year in F3, following Marc Hynes' triumph last season.

The race had high drama even before the green light, with pole-sitter Takuma Sato diving into the pit lane with his Carlin Motorsport Dallara Mugen-Honda stuck in third gear. As the lights blinked green, Monteiro shot of the line ahead of Pizzonia and Karthikeyan, but the Indian driver braved it out on the outside of Pizzonia through Eau Rouge and up Radillon in a breath-taking display.

Karthikeyan tried the same move a lap later but still couldn't get by, and then fell behind Ben Collins (Carlin Motorsport) as a consequence. Undaunted, Karthikeyan re-passed Collins and set about Pizzonia once more, but, despite briefly gaining the place, was unable to stay ahead. Collins had a spin, which cost him time, and then a mechanical drama sent him into retirement.

Monteiro was uncatchable, however, up front as his Renault-engined Dallara took the flag 1.5secs ahead of Pizzonia and Karthikeyan. Italian Gianmaria Bruni grabbed fourth ahead of Tomas Scheckter and Nicolas Kiesa. The South African racer had to finish ahead of Pizzonia, with the series leader outside the top eight if he was to take the championship battle down to the wire, but a poor qualifying position prevented any chance of him making up the ground he needed.

Behind the top six, Promatecme runners Matt Davies and Andy Priaulx were unable to match the similar Renault-powered performance of winner Monteiro, and had to settle for seventh and eight places ahead of British drivers Andrew Kirkaldy and Martin O'Connell.

The Scholarship Class was won by Atsushi Katsumata for the second race in a row after class champion Gary Paffett was eliminated in a first-lap crash. Second in class went to Mark Mayall, scoring his best result of the season ahead of Julian Westwood in the Dallara run by Parker F3, the team making its single-seater debut.

Race Result - F3 - Spa-Francorchamps.

1. Tiago Monteiro ASM Dallara-Renault
2. Antonio Pizzonia Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen
3. Narain Karthikeyan Stewart Racing Dallara-Mugen
4. Gianmaria Bruni Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mugen
5. Tomas Scheckter Stewart Racing Dallara-Mugen
6. Nicolas Kiesa RC Benetton Jr Dallara-Opel
7. Matt Davies Promatecme Dallara-Renault
8. Andy Priaulx Promatecme Dallara-Renault
9. Andrew Kirkaldy Team Avanti Dallara-Opel
10. Martin O?Connell Rowan Racing Dallara-Mugen

Scholarship Class

1. Atsushi Katsumata Meritus Dallara-Toyota