The last time Formula One was away from Europe, all hell broke loose and the Brazilian Grand Prix was one of the most chaotic races in recent years, with Giancarlo Fisichella emerging as the final winner albeit a few days later. As the circus prepares to head across the Atlantic ocean once again, for the Canadian Grand Prix, Eddie Jordan tells Will Gray the story behind Fisichella's surprising win, including anecdotes and details unknown before. Exclusive for Atlas F1

The last time Formula One's flying circus took to the skies to jet out of Europe it returned clouded in controversy after a thrilling rain-soaked Brazilian Grand Prix left half the cars in the field in pieces and ended in confusion as two different teams celebrated victory in as many minutes.

The Interlagos race, the third of the season after Australia and Malaysia, was stopped when third-placed Fernando Alonso crashed out on debris left on the track by Mark Webber's earlier collision with the wall on the pit straight and the ensuing mayhem created a thrilling finale.

A marshal was fortunate to escape injury in the incident as he headed to tend to Australian Webber's stricken Jaguar just at the moment Alonso's Renault was pitched into a spin - the Spanish driver failed to make the podium because he was taken away to hospital with an injured leg.

The cameras focused on team boss Eddie Jordan and the rest of his yellow and black team clustered together like bees on a honey pot, jumping up and down because their man Giancarlo Fisichella had crossed the line first to start his 56th lap. It was the fourth win of their history and it had come in their 200th Grand Prix but, rather than celebrating with fireworks, Fisichella's EJ13 erupted in flames after he parked it in the pitlane and his maiden Grand Prix victory rapidly went up in smoke.

As quickly as the smile arrived on the Jordan faces it disappeared again as the timing monitors placed Finnish McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen in top spot after the roll-back rule had been applied. Jordan was told as he headed up to the podium and there was no time to disagree.

"I never actually accepted that we hadn't won," said Jordan. "We'd actually seen lap 56 come up on the screen for Fisichella - but only Fisichella - before the red flag came so we knew we had won. But it is very important that the proper procedure goes through in the right timeframe. There was no time to protest something and I said 'I can't accept the situation, I don't understand how Raikkonen won the race because he never came onto lap 56, we did, and it goes back two laps so it was lap 54 and lap 54 we were leading the race'."

Jordan reluctantly stepped aside to allow McLaren's representative onto the podium to claim the team prize while Fisichella tried to put on a happy face as he collected his second-place trophy. He failed to act as well as he had driven as a frown dominated his usually smiley demeanour.

The confusion came because the race was stopped during the second round of pitstops and several other drivers, including Raikkonen's teammate Scot David Coulthard, could have been credited with the win if the red flag had come out one or two laps earlier or later.

That mattered little to Jordan, however. His team had won and they had to prove it as quietly as possible without losing crucial friends in the political minefield of the Formula One paddock. McLaren boss Ron Dennis, for one, is better a friend than an enemy.

After the brief exchange of some sporting words between Jordan and Dennis, the Irish team boss made some enquiries and began his efforts to right the wrongs. Jordan had evidence on their telemetry that could prove Fisichella had won but that was not good enough and he was forced to wait.

"When I pointed out the problem they needed to see evidence on their machines and all the stuff was coming back to England," said Jordan. "The organisers needed to see the original accurate data even though we had certain things and it took until Wednesday to look. The problem at the time was the results had been declared official and what we did was register our understanding about getting some evidence about it and we decided to leave it that way, based on the fact that it was a sporting matter.

"There is no way that, if Fisichella had actually won the race, they could have kept it away from him. It would have been too difficult to do - not that they would have wanted to. The FIA are very correct and they would have wanted to see that everything is done properly."

So, as headlines declared Raikkonen as the winner, the real story was unfolding inside the garages and a plan to sort the situation out was being plotted. It was kept under wraps until Atlas F1 questioned the governing body, the FIA, on the Wednesday and they revealed they were investigating the results.

"By Wednesday all of the equipment had to come back, the timing equipment and all that," said Jordan. "It was quite unfortunate because the timekeepers and the timing equipment were in different places and there were injuries, there was a lot of confusion in terms of crashes and debris, the weather was appalling."

The FIA revealed they understood the timekeepers had made a mistake and called them to meet at the governing body's headquarters in Paris on Friday. Jordan already knew that there was no way he could lose and booked a flight to the French capital so he could hear the words for himself.

McLaren, meanwhile, had already resigned themselves to losing their win and did not even send a representative to Paris for the hearing. Insiders claimed that it would be a waste of time going, but Jordan was not going to let the opportunity slip from his hands.

"I think once we went to the court it was the matter of getting the stewards to understand there was an error here," said Jordan. "It got resolved amicably and I think it was a very good moment not just for Jordan but for the FIA and for the sport."

Jordan already had a plan in his head to reward Fisichella for his success in a fitting way by re-creating the Brazilian Grand Prix podium with the Italian driver now on the top step before the following race, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

A beaming Jordan exited the courtroom while Fisichella, who had been to the factory after the Brazilian race, heard about the news when Jordan himself called him at Viareggio, where he was attending a sponsor's convention. But, for the Italian driver, it was not the same as that podium he had in his dreams.

The wheels were immediately set in motion for the creation of a podium ceremony and, rather than using the official San Marino podium, it was posed to McLaren-Mercedes that they do a trophy swap on a podium in front of the Jordan motorhome in the Imola paddock.

Formula One commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, however, was keen to play a part in the ceremony and took over the podium plans, orchestrating an official ceremony, instead, on the start-finish line at Imola with the Jordan-Ford and McLaren-Mercedes cars lined up as the backdrop.

"The problem with the podium was that if there was a podium there should have been all the drivers there and we didn't have Alonso," said Jordan. "But there were a number of things that happened and that was Bernie's solution. I think it worked well."

For Fisichella, however, it was the second time he had missed out on the podium he so desperately craved and, as he walked back with a team member having still failed to spray the champagne as a winner, he disappointedly muttered: "I thought we were going to have a podium..."

Jordan, who did not hand over the second-placed trophy during the ceremony, insists he has now given it to Dennis to complete the switch. But apart from a trophy and another place in the record books Jordan does not yet know exactly what benefit the Brazil win will give him.

"It is virtually impossible to say how much it was worth," he said. "The fact that we are fifth in the championship at the moment is important, very important, and we want to stay in the top five. If we can stay there, then that is money.

"The money is not paid per race it is paid on the championship final position and I think that structure is important for us. Truthfully, for the last nine years we have been in the top six and we want to be sure we can maintain at least that position and be better in everywhere possible."