EDDIE IRVINE had hundreds of millions of hearts around the globe beating faster as he drove the race of his life to finish a thrilling Argentinian Grand Prix less than a second behind winner Jacques Villenueve.

Ralf Schumacher made it a doubly fine day for the Irish with a life at the limit drive to the other podium spot in only his third Grand Prix and Jordan's most competitive showing.

Irvine drove a storming race from the moment the start lights dimmed: "I had a great start," he beamed.

As the cars steamed into the first corner, a Ferrari crashed. But, to the huge relief of the Irish it wasn't Irvine: "I really didn't see anything," he said, "it all happened behind me."

Irvine's lightning start slotted him into fourth place while the safety car cruised around waiting for the debris to be cleared. Panis, in third place, was facing certain disqualification for overtaking while the safety car was on the track, while Frentzen, in second, would be an early retirement.

Irvine never lost contact with long time race leader Jacques Villeneuve: "The car was handling well. It felt good all weekend," he said.

At half distance, Villeneuve peeled off into the pits for his second of three stops, leaving Irvine to head a World Championship Grand Prix for the first time. Flashing past the Ferrari pit board reading "IRV 1" galvanised the 31 year old further on five successive laps he smashed the Buenos Aires lap record to the delight of the vast, Argentinian crowd, many of Italian extraction. The land of Fangio adores Ferrari and yesterday Irvine held the honour of Matanello high.

Yesterday was a career best finish for Irvine and a strong rebuff to those in the Italian media who were suggesting that Irvine would be dumped by Ferrari after a lacklustre start to the season.

It was Irvine's 51st grand prix start, and in the closing stages he seemed to have a chance of winning: "The tyres were shot at the end. I could get close to Jacques but not close enough to pass him," he said.

He reflected on his best result at Ferrari: "It's been a long wait, but I think the most important thing is that the car is much better than last year and getting better all the time.

Eddie Jordan had his most competitive race with Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher running second and third at one stage. Running on hard tyres and a one stop strategy, the two Benson & Hedges cars were possible winners until Schumacher made a suicidal bid to overtake his teammate. In a heart stopping moment, he bumped the Italian out of the race.

But Schumacher avoided a serious tongue lashing from Jordan by recovering in a storming drive to third place. Maybe not a team player, certainly not one to admit, to a mistake; but clearly Ralf, Schumacher is another superstar in the making.

Jordan was delighted with his team's competitiveness, and discussed it last night after a heart to heart with his drivers. "What I'm most pleased about is that we finished less than 20 seconds behind Ferrari and Williams. The car is clearly now very quick. Obviously we are sorry for Giancarlo."

That either of the Jordan drivers could have won except for the incident is without question. But Jordan was not keen to dwell on it: "I have had a frank discussion with the drivers. We are a team. We must all work for the good of the team. Now we have had a good result and will go and celebrate."

"As regards the incident," Schumacher said, "Giancarlo missed the braking point and I thought he was making space for me. It was a shame. Later I will speak to him."

Fisichella was very unhappy afterwards but refused to condemn his team mate.