Monday March 4th, 2002

By Timothy Collings

A bizarre weekend for the Arrows team and their owner Tom Walkinshaw came to a controversial conclusion when both of their cars were disqualified from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after stalling on the starting grid.

Walkinshaw had upset many of his rivals, notably Minardi team chief Paul Stoddart, by being linked with the purchase of the bankrupt Prost Grand Prix team's Championship entry and other assets in Paris last Thursday.

That news and the row it sparked involving Stoddart, who threatened legal action, and a defensive Walkinshaw, had overshadowed the build-up to the race, which turned from an embarrassment to a full-scale fiasco for the Arrows team.

Walkinshaw, a realist, would not be surprised to learn that many of his paddock competitors revelled in his misfortunes on a day when Stoddart's Minardi team made history by enabling local hero and debutant Mark Webber to become the first Australian to score a World Championship point since 1986.

Perform Poorly

As Stoddart rolled his eyes, guzzled champagne and grinned, while muttering "amazing, amazing" to all passers-by, Walkinshaw was quick to leave the Albert Park circuit where he had spent two days being questioned over the Prost deal and a third gnashing his teeth in frustration.

His team did not perform poorly, but dismally. Both cars driven by newly-recruited German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, formerly with Prost, and Enrique Bernoldi of Brazil, were black flagged and disqualified for rules infringements after rejoining the race following their red-faced muddle on the grid.

Walkinshaw said "it should never have happened. Never".

Frentzen, whose car was started by his mechanics, rejoined the race from the pit lane, but did so while a red light was blazing to denote the pit lane was closed.

Bernoldi returned to the team garage and changed to the spare car to use when he joined the race, an action only permitted had the race been stopped and re-started after the first lap carnage that removed eight cars.

"It's a bad start to the year for the whole team," said Bernoldi. "Looking at how the race finished, I think we could have been in the points today. We tried to get into the race in the spare car, but it was over for us."

Frentzen, whose career has been in disarray since he was fired last year by the Jordan team, said: "My engine just stopped on the grid. That was the end of it for me, really. I didn't see the red light at the end of the pit lane. That was my mistake. It can only get better from here now."

Walkinshaw, unhappy at the all-round performance of the team, was conspicuous by his silence in the team's statements after the race. Like many who had attempted to unravel the mystery of his role in the purchase, by Phoenix Holdings, of Prost's Championship entry, he may have felt it was all too much.

Published at 12:57:36 GMT