Sunday April 2nd, 2000

Organisers of the Brazilian Grand Prix risked having the race wiped from the 2001 calendar following the disruption in the qualifying sessions for this year's race, FIA president Max Mosley said on Sunday.

Qualifying was stopped three times when advertising hoardings crashed on to the Interlagos circuit last week, one of them hitting the Prost driven by Jean Alesi.

The Brazilian organisers have been summoned by the sport's ruling body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), to a meeting in Paris on Thursday and Mosley said they were likely to face "a very substantial sanction."

"One must always listen to both sides before coming to a conclusion but they certainly risk a substantial fine and possibly having their race banned," Mosley told BBC Radio Five Live.

"It happened three times and I thought that was completely unacceptable," he added.

"Obviously before you say anything you have to listen to what the organisers have to say but I think they do risk a very substantial sanction.

"Like many others, I was watching it on television with an increasing sense of irritation. It is infuriating."

Mosley said it was highly probable that advertising hoardings over the track would be banned in the future.

"In my opinion, such fixtures should not exist," he said. "It is one thing to put a hoarding on the side of the track in the hope of it being seen on television but it is quite another thing to have it sticking out over the track.

"It is not for me alone to decide but I think the world council will decide that it will not be allowed ever again in the future."

The Brazilian organisers have come in for heavy criticism following the incident-packed race in Sao Paulo last Sunday.

Sauber have blamed the bumpy surface of the Interlagos track for the rear wing failures that forced the Swiss-based team's withdrawal from the race.

On Monday a FIA court of three judges will hear more complaints about the surface from the McLaren team appealing against David Coulthard's disqualification from the race after his car failed a post-race inspection.

Coulthard finished runner-up to Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.