British American Racing couldn't have anticipated a worse weekend. An accident in the second morning practice round prior to qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix ended Ricardo Zonta's hopes of racing in his first-ever home race today. The young Brazilian was airlifted to hospital for repairs on his left foot after spinning out at 120 mph on turn five, and almost totalling his car.

Doctors operated immediately to repair a severed tendon between the third and fourth toes of Zonta's left foot and pronounced him in good condition moments after the procedure. However, the accident leaves British American Racing with only one entry in Sunday's race.

Then, if that was not enough, word came that Jacques Villeneuve, who qualified at 16th, will have to start the race from the back of the grid, after the stewards found his car to be using Illegal fuel.

"The weekend has started very very badly for us," commented BAR's managinf director, Craig Pollock. "Obviously we are very happy that Ricardo's injuries are not as bad as we thought. It appears that the car has not reacted very well on a bumpy circuit which could be one of the causes for Ricardo's accident. We are very disappointed and we can see that how difficult Sunday is going to be for us but we will do the best we can for Jacques and for the team."