Asked whether he would accept Hill as his team-mate, he said: “I don’t have a problem to be in the same team as Damon Hill and I’m sure he would accept to be second driver!”Hill would not accept second best yesterday, coming out on top in the hectic scramble at the end of the qualifying session on a rapidly drying track. “I thought it was a good idea to show that we do not have that kind of war. We are not friends and do not have a relationship, but there is no war.”The Benetton-Renault driver, on home ground here, repeated that he was in discussion with three other teams (Ferrari, Williams and McLaren) for next season. But if it doesn’t happen, it would not stop the world turning.”Schumacher, too, regretted the announcement. “That’s all a bit stupid, isn’t it? It would look insincere after what happened. Besides, they nearly sat together at Silverstone didn’t they?”Hill’s boss, Frank Williams, expressed his disappointment with Ecclestone’s declaration “It would have been a nice thing to do I’m going to look at the rules. We can ban, suspend and fine heavily.”Ecclestone contends Hill missed the opportunity to rid himself of the lingering flak.

“Damon has had two weeks to say he made a mistake and that would have been it.”He saw the idea of Hill’s riding alongside Schumacher as an empty gesture. If we take away somebody’s licence it could cost a driver millions of pounds and we won’t hesitate to do it if anybody transgresses badly. These guys are not driving dodgems.”Drivers should be warned there are no limits to our powers of punishment. If there is, then the culprit could be forced to stand down from racing for a long time.”We could take away the driver’s licence and wouldn’t hesitate to do it for an act of stupidity Somebody could get killed if that sort of thing carried on.

He criticised the verdict of the stewards, who blamed both drivers for the incident.”I don’t know why Damon did what he did,” Ecclestone said “He had the beating of Schumacher We do not want a repeat. But he was as contemptuous of Hill’s peace plan as he was of his overtaking manoeuvre in the British Grand Prix. Ecclestone, never a man to play down a good rivalry, also rejected Hill’s suggestion – accepted by Michael Schumacher – that they ride together on the parade lap. The president of the Formula One Constructors’ Association and vice-president of FIA, the governing body, dismissed Hill’s proposal as “hypocritical”.
Ecclestone maintained that “rules are rules”, stipulating that drivers of the same team occupy the same show vehicle. Just when it seemed Damon Hill was in the clear, the pressures and accusations came crowding in again. He claimed provisional pole position for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix, then received a warning from Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s impresario, that a repetition of Silverstone could cost him his licence. Racing starts at 10.30 today and continues until next Saturday..

Italy’s BravaQ8 was again leading the 40s, chased, inevitably, by the American Pigs in Space, though the Gordon Maguire-skippered Irish yacht Jameson 2 then forced its way between the two.America’s Jim Brady led the Mumm 36s from the Italian yacht Mumm a Mia!, skippered by the Welshman Eddie Warden Owen.Back in Cowes the town was filling up rapidly as the boats for the 857 entries in the Skandia Life Cowes week poured in from around the sailing world. Ireland’s Jameson 1 was the leading big boat, again chased by America’s Blue Yankee. All the boats were carried out past the Needles on a swooshing, westerly ebb tide and the big boats could even have been back for a last dance at one of the many discos which spring up here during the event.And, as the Channel Race counts for more than double points, the winners could be looking at some easy pickings over breakfast today, the losers rueing the fact that there would be so little opportunity to recover.While Britain’s big boat, Group 4 Seahorse, was up with the pack, the 40ft Group 4 Astro was next to last and the Mumm 36 Group 4 was last in her class. Green was also considering extending the course if the weather forecast was inaccurate.

The distance set was surprisingly short – 200 miles is the norm – as the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s course setter, Alan Green, was worried about the fresh south-westerly breeze dying a death overnight.If the race lasted overnight. The combination of power from sails towering some 110 feet above the water, skill, as the competitors criss-crossed each other with only feet to spare, and sheer lunacy, as high risks were willingly taken to gain a little extra advantage, provided a spectacular scene.
The 24 yachts set out from the Solent before racing down to Poole, back along the south of the Isle of Wight and then executing a triangle around Nab Tower. The sight of huge yachts thundering towards the crowd-lined beach in the Champagne Mumm Admiral’s Cup here yesterday at the start of a Channel Race that began at 104 miles and, in a highly unusual step, was extended by a further 50 midway through the event, provided a classic overture to Cowes Week. Two bogeys on the back nine denied him a course record, although he got his second eagle of the day at the 12th.. He scored a string of birdies, including three in a row from the 10th.Torrance came in with a magnificent 64 to finish 10 under. He recorded a glorious eagle three at the fourth and followed that with birdies at five and seven to go out in 32. Woosnam lies in 11th place, just out of the selection zone, and knows he is not guaranteed a wild card by captain Bernard Gallacher.