BAR Cleared to Race after Court Win (Updated)

Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve were cleared to race in the French Grand Prix today after a local court lifted an order to impound their BAR cars.

Team principal David Richards said an emergency court hearing in the central town of Nevers had freed the cars locked up on Thursday when police and bailiffs turned up at the Magny-Cours Formula One circuit.

"The order was totally invalid and it has been lifted by the court this morning," he said.

BAR are being sued by Monaco production company PPGI, who claim the constructor owes them a $3 million commission for negotiating sponsoring rights. Richards said BAR, whose British and Canadian drivers were forced to miss the first hour-long free practice session, could now counter-sue for damages.

"You can quite clearly see the methodology which has been used in this situation and we are now considering our position re damages," he said. "Now we can definitely prove damage."

The cars had been locked in sealed trucks at the circuit overnight with legal notices posted on the doors preventing mechanics touching them. Richards said both drivers would take part in first qualifying but would clearly be hampered, although continuing wet conditions would level things out.

"We're just going to go around slowly this afternoon, clearly it's a new circuit here now and the drivers have never driven on it before," said Richards. "So they will drive around sensibly and there is little question that they will be at the back of the grid for qualifying tomorrow. How much of a handicap that will prove depends on the weather conditions."

Richards, who said his lawyers has been working on the case for months and were astounded by Thursday's action, criticised the slow pace of the legal system.

"It's really strange that we went into court at nine o'clock, presented our case in 10 minutes and we didn't get a judgement until 11.30, from a lay judge unfortunately, like a local magistrate," he said. "We went into court and said there's no basis for what you've done and it took him over two hours to agree that was the case."

In the meantime, the team had to wait. A local lawyer representing BAR clutched a folder of documents and paced up and down outside the motorhome before the rain came and forced him inside.

With no cars to work on, Canadian Villeneuve's race engineer Jock Clear spent half an hour fixing a malfunctioning coffee machine in the team motorhome, overseen in his labours by technical director Geoff Willis.

Willis told reporters BAR could get the cars ready within half an hour, plenty of time before the first single-lap qualifying session starts at 1200 GMT.