Oulton race results could be amended

Race leader Mark Taylor was on his 11th lap when the event was halted. The normal MSA rules of British motorsport state that, when a red flag is shown, the results are decided on the basis of the order at one lap less than the last completed lap. With Taylor having completed 10 laps, the result was therefore declared at nine.

At this point Heikki Kovalainen led the race from Fabio Carbone, but both men ran off track in wet conditions on the 10th lap, promoting Taylor into the lead.

But on Monday, one of the F3 teams discovered a British F3 Championship sporting regulation which overrides this rule. It states: "The race will be deemed to have finished when the leading car crossed the line at the end of the lap prior to that during which the signal to stop was given."

This means that the Oulton result should be declared at 10 laps, giving Taylor the win, and demoting original race winner Kovalainen to seventh. It is believed that the rule was written to stop someone from deliberately leaving their car in a dangerous place to get a race halted.

Manor Motorsport boss John Booth, who runs Taylor, said: "It's as plain as day and quite how anyone can argue with this I don't know. The cat's out of the bag now."

It also means that Courtney would be promoted from fourth to third place. Kerr, who crashed on the 10th lap, would lose his seventh place and be classified as a retirement. Even under MSA rules, Kerr would be classified as a non-finisher, as the governing body states that: "Only cars which are running under their own power at the showing of the red flag will be classified."

Both rules would also mean that Clivio Piccione and Billy Asaro, who were classified first and second in the Scholarship Class but who both aquaplaned off the road on lap 10, would lose their points, and that Stephen Colbert would pick up the win.

Formula 3 clerk of the course Dennis Carter is believed to be asking MST, the championship's official timing company, to provide hard evidence as to when the race was stopped.

If the results are amended, they would be: 1st Mark Taylor; 2nd Fabio Carbone; 3rd James Courtney; 4th Ronnie Bremer; 5th Richard Antinucci; 6th Alan van der Merwe; 7th Heikki Kovalainen; 8th Stephen Colbert; 9th Stefan Hodgetts; 10th Stefano Fabi. Scholarship Class: 1st Colbert; 2nd Pedro Barral.

The points would now be: 1st Courtney 223; 2nd Kerr 215; 3rd Bruce Jouanny 154; 4th Michael Keohane 142; 5th Taylor 126; 6th Kovalainen 122.