APRIL 10, 2003

Jordan has evidence of Fisichella's victory

Eddie Jordan says that his team has evidence that proves that Giancarlo Fisichella was on his 56th lap when the Brazilian Grand Prix was red-flagged on Sunday. This is vital as if it is established that the Italian driver had started the lap before seeing the red flags he will be declared the winner as the result will be declared at the end of lap 54 rather than at the end of lap 53. Fisichella took the lead in the course of the 54th lap.

"We believe we are able to show from our own timing beacon that Giancarlo was around 10 seconds into lap 56 when the red flag was shown," Jordan told The Guardian newspaper. "We await with interest the outcome of Friday's meeting. We are not directly involved in the sense that we have not made any sort of protest."

We have heard that there may also be in-car footage from Fisichella's car which shows that he had started the 56th lap before the red flags appeared. This has not been confirmed.

One of the problems encountered is that since the demise of the digital TV service there are fewer cameras being used at F1 races and consequently there are fewer available pieces of evidence. We understand from photographers, for example, that David Coulthard had a spin while trying to avoid the wreckage of the Mark Webber/Fernando Alonso accidents. This did not show up at all on television.

If the result is overturned there will be a considerable embarrassment for not only TAG-Heuer, which is the official timekeeper of F1 but also for Formula One Management, which is responsible for the infrastructure with which TAG-Heuer works. It is not clear exactly where the responsibility lies but it is likely that the FIA will want to know so that the problem cannot be repeated in the future.