Eddie Irvine was forced to watch his lead in the Formula One drivers' championship be shaved to just two points yesterday as Mika Hakkinen cast aside the bad luck that has dogged him since Silverstone and swept to a convincing win here.

Irvine, who had to settle for third place after sliding wide 14 laps from home to allow David Coulthard in the second McLaren to slip past, was, however, philosophical about the result: "Four points in the hand is better than six in the sand traps."

But while those four points, which mark his seventh podium finish this season, keep Irvine marginally ahead of Hakkinen, yesterday's Hungaroring race was a deflating experience for Ferrari, who fully expected to be more than competitive on a circuit which was supposed to suit them rather than McLaren.

"It's a disappointment," Irvine admitted. "There's a couple of things I don't think we did particularly well this weekend and we need to go away and look at that and see how we can improve it. "But we've had two good weekends and they can't all be good weekends, because then you'd never know what a good weekend felt like. Today we know was a bad weekend, so hopefully next one will be a good weekend and then everyone will be smiling again."

Irvine's attempt to secure a third consecutive win and establish a solid lead over Hakkinen in the race for the title was dashed, first by a difficult start from the dirty side of the grid's front row, and then by the sheer pace of Hakkinen who, in the closing stages, had established a massive 30-second lead over the Ferrari.

"I was a little surprised by their pace and we need to look at that," he admitted. "I think we maybe got something a little bit wrong. But we'll look at it very carefully in the debriefing after the race to see why, because it's very unusual for us not to be quick at the race and here we were really struggling."

The Ferrari number one was also hampered by electrical problems and by rapidly degrading tyres throughout. "The tyres felt pretty good for a couple of laps and then just really went off big time," he said. "I was really struggling with the rear of the car and struggling with the front. It was just jumping around a bit too much. We were just hanging on by the skin of our teeth."

With five races left, Irvine is also hanging on to his championship lead by the same fragile piece of flesh. His next opportunity to secure a surer grip on the title comes in a fortnight in Belgium, and, while he was putting a positive spin on the prospect, it's doubtful the daunting Spa Francorchamps circuit will inspire a surfeit of confidence in the Ferrari number one, who has never finished in the points in Belgium and crashed out in his last two outings there.

"We have a couple of aerodynamic steps coming along," he said. "It's been a while since we've had any improvements to the car, so hopefully these new steps should make us more competitive at Spa."

Irvine may take some degree of comfort from the fact that Hakkinen's Belgian record, while more lucrative than the Irishman's, does not include a win at the famous and much-loved track. However, the defending champion still had an ominous message for Ferrari. "Spa can be very tricky because of the conditions that sometimes prevail there, but what we have found out with this car this year is that it's suitable for all kinds of conditions and circuits," the Finn said, "and I have to admit that the result I got here today, it's nice to be able to look forward to Belgium."

Also looking forward to Belgium will be Jordan. Spa was the location for the team's maiden grand prix win last year, and yesterday the preparations for a good showing at the circuit got underway with the team ending the afternoon with both drivers in the top six, the first such result since the British Grand Prix.

With Heinz Harald Frentzen fourth and the troubled Damon Hill sixth, Jordan have moved into a decisive 20-point lead over Williams in their pursuit of third place in the constructors' championship.

Frentzen was pragmatic about his fourth three-point haul of the season.

"The team did a very good job today with both cars in the points," he said. "It's my eighth finish of the season in the points, so we're very consistent. The car was running perfectly, an now I am really looking forward to Spa-Francorchamps."