Fisichella awarded Brazil win

Fisichella awarded Brazil win

Fisichella: Talent rewarded

Giancarlo Fisichella has been confirmed as the winner of the Brazilian Grand Prix following Friday's review of the result.

Race stewards overturned their original decision in naming McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen as the winner because of a timekeeping discrepancy.

The Finn was behind the Jordan driver when the race was stopped but was declared the winner on the basis of the rule that says "the race classification will be that at the end of the lap two laps prior to that during which the signal to stop the race was given".

RACE RESULT

1 Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan)
2 Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren)
3 Fernando Alonso (Renault)
4 David Coulthard (McLaren)
5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Sauber)
6 Jacques Villeneuve (BAR)
7 Jarno Trulli (Renault)
8 Ralf Schumacher (Williams)

All the times and positions

It has now emerged that Fisichella had started the 56th lap when the race was stopped, which means the result is declared at the end of the 54th lap, during the course of which the Italian took the lead.

The discrepancy was caused by a timekeeping error in which the timing screens saying Fisichella had completed 55 laps disappeared after a few seconds.

They reverted to ones saying he was still on his 55th lap at the time the red flag was shown.

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I feel that while the race was exciting, the aftermath has turned the whole thing into a farce

Neil, England

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Fisichella's win was made official after a meeting of the Brazilian race stewards at the Paris headquarters of the sport's governing body, the FIA, on Friday.

The decision brought joy to Fisichella's Silverstone-based Jordan team, who can now celebrate their fourth grand prix victory in their 200th race.

"This is fantastic. We so desperately wanted to win that race. The right decision was made today. We'll sleep very well tonight," said team boss Eddie Jordan.

Brazilian GP: Race report

Fisichella, who had finished runner-up five times before last weekend's race, has also finally scored his maiden win after 110 attempts.

"I will have a good party tonight, I'm sure," Fisichella told BBC Five Live.

"But obviously it would have been much better to celebrate the win on the podium. But that's life - I won and that is the most important thing."

Fisichella now has 10 points in the drivers' championship, moving into fifth place overall.

Raikkonen, who had won his maiden race in Malaysia two weeks earlier, has seen his lead over McLaren team-mate David Coulthard cut by two points to 24 overall.

F1 to review countback rule

This website has also learned that the countback rule itself is to be reviewed as a result of the mix-up.