Sunday April 30th, 2000

BAR driver Jacques Villeneuve might miss the Spanish Grand Prix because of a back injury, reports said yesterday. It was revealed that the Canadian is suffering from back injury ever since the Brazilian Grand Prix last month.

Villeneuve had apparently raced with a loose seat at Brazil which affected his back muscles. He's been going through physiotherapy since, but lately the aches had increased to the extent that Villeneuve withdrew from testing at Barcelona last week.

Villeneuve is scheduled to see a specialist next week, to determine whether or not he could race at the Spanish Grand Prix.

BAR made no comment at this time and was unwilling to speculate who would replace Villeneuve in the race should he not be able to participate. The team has two test drivers - Darren Manning and Patrick Lemarie, the former, Japanese F1 champion, rated highly whereas the latter, ex-F3000 driver, considered a close friend of Villeneuve. However, it was Frenchman Lemarie who replaced Villeneuve at Barcelona on the last day of testing last week, whereas Manning did not have any testing with the team for a while now.