Fisichella to Get Podium Celebration at Imola

Italy's Giancarlo Fisichella will have to close his eyes on Friday and pretend that Imola is Interlagos.

Nearly two weeks after the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix, the Jordan driver will be handed a winner's trophy that was carried away from the Sao Paulo circuit by McLaren's Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA), who sorted out the mess last Friday when Fisichella was belatedly declared the winner, said on Wednesday that the Roman would receive the trophy at Imola ahead of Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix.

Fisichella, deprived of the joy of a podium celebration after recording his first win in 110 starts, will be handed the trophy at 0845 GMT in a short ceremony on the circuit's start-finish line.

Eddie Jordan, whose team were marking their 200th Grand Prix at Interlagos and saw justice prevail when a timing error was unearthed, will be present as Raikkonen and McLaren boss Ron Dennis hand over the trophy.

The Irish and Italian anthems will sound and there will be a scattering of applause rather than samba rhythms from the stands. Then it is likely to be business as usual as the photographers scatter to make way for the start of free practice and the Ferrari fans wait for a first glimpse of their heroes on the champions' home track.

Marked Contrast

Sunday at Interlagos, with tens of thousands of drenched Paulistas hailing the winner, and Imola on a Friday morning are worlds apart. Whatever their feelings 12 days on, the Jordan mechanics are unlikely to show the same unfettered joy of the immediate aftermath at Interlagos when Fisichella led the way on a red-flagged final lap.

Fisichella may still be left with a sour taste.

"The damage remains," he said last week after his victory was confirmed. "I would have been the first Italian to win in 11 years and I was not able to stand on the top step of the podium. But it's still a win that will go down in Formula One history."

At least he can console himself that the FIA recognised the mistake and reversed the result. Other drivers in the past, like Raikkonen at Interlagos, have had their podium celebrations go flat days later when the governing body ruled against them.

James Hunt suffered both sides of the coin in 1976, reinstated as Spanish Grand Prix winner following an appeal and stripped of a home British win several weeks after he had celebrated the victory at Brands Hatch.

In 1995, Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard were reinstated as Brazilian Grand Prix winner and runner-up after a fuel irregularity. The FIA penalised the teams but not the drivers in a ruling that baffled many observers. Imola too has seen winners come and go in the course of an afternoon.

In 1985 France's Alain Prost ran out of fuel after taking the chequered flag and was then thrown out for having an underweight car.

"This was a complete victory, one of my best in terms of attack and tactics," he recalled later. "I'd have accepted being thrown out after a crappy victory but not one like that."

Read more on Fisichella's victory, in his own words, later today in this week's magazine edition of Atlas F1.