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Jaguar Racing Set to Loose Brazilian GP Points!
by Pascal Gademer, South Florida Jaguar Club
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posted 4/9/2003

The aftermath of the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix is still very chaotic with the FIA announcing it is reviewing the timing and scoring data and will make a formal announcement on Friday during a meeting in Paris.

When Jaguar Racing's Mark Webber lost control of his R4 on the main straight and crashed heavily strewing debris all over the track, yellow flags came out to warn drivers of the danger. Both Giancarolo Fisichella and Kimi Raikonen made it thru but 3rd place Renault's Fernando Alonso hit one of the Jaguar wheel and crashed adding more debris to the track forcing marshalls to stop the race.

Eventhough, most initially thought that Fisichella had just scored his first career victory, in the minutes that followed Kimi Raikonen (McLaren Mercedes) was declared the winner because of a rule stating that in case of red flag the final results will those taken two laps before, in this case lap 53.

With further examination of timing and scoring data, it now appears that race leader Giancarlo Fisichella had started his 56th laps when the red flags came out prompting the FIA to look at the results at the end of lap 54, and by that time Fisichella had already passed Raikonen for the lead.

If confirmed on Friday, this will delight team owner Eddie Jordan, whose team is struggling for financing and whose last win dates back to Spa in 1999. Many F1 fans and observers felt for Eddie Jordan when he and his mechanics gradually realized that this all important victory was slipping away in the minutes following the race.

Unfortunately for Jaguar Racing, Mark Webber was outside the points at the end of lap 54 and stands to loose his 7th place to Jarno Trulli... and 8th place to Ralf Schumacher, leaving the team with no points so far this season.

The Premier Performance Division which includes Jaguar Racing, PI Electronic and Ford Cosworth, will take comfort in the fact that the revised results make the Cosworth engine a race winner as it powers the Jordan Ford team. But it will also greatly increase pressure on Jaguar, which uses the same engine... and has a far larger budget than Jordan...

Stay tuned... the Brazilian GP isn't over just yet!

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