The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has begun an inquiry after tapes purported to show that two top Formula One motor racing teams colluded in the final Grand Prix of the season, the Times newspaper reported today. The newspaper printed Transcripts of recordings between drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher and their pit teams, which the paper said showed how Villeneuve's constructors Williams and the McLaren team co-ordinated their drivers to effectively determine the order of the first three cars across the line.

Villeneuve, who needed only to finish fifth in the Grand Prix at Jerez in Spain to win the world championship after Schumacher crashed in a collision with him, was ordered to allow Mika Hakkinen to win for McLaren, according to the report.

"Hakkinen quite quick and very helpful," Williams race engineer Jock Clear was quoted as saying in radio transmission to Villeneuve.

"Be aware that Hakkinen is now in position two. He probably wants to win. Very helpful."

Later Clear's transmission read: "Hakkinen is immediately behind. Last lap. Last lap. (Extremely nervous). Hakkinen has been very helpful. Jacques, position two. Don't let me down, Jacques. We have discussed this."

Earlier Patrick Head was quoted as saying at the beginning of the penultimate lap to Clear: "To repeat, Jock. We are more concerned with the championship than the race position."

Villeneuve subsequently pulled over to let Hakkinen through to win and British Williams driver David Coulthard to take second place.

The report claimed that sources had said that Coulthard had been ordered to fend off a challenge from Eddie Irvine, whose Ferrari was the greatest threat to Villeneuve's championship hopes.

The report has alarmed race organisers and betting firms. "This is hard to believe," said Bernie Ecclestone, head of the Formula One Constructors' Association.

"We do not like to see this because it ruins people's faith in the integrity of the sport," said a spokesman for bookmakers William Hill.

Earlier yesterday, an Italian prosecutor ended nine months of court action in Imola by asking for Formula One team owner Frank Williams and three others to be cleared of manslaughter charges.

But Maurizio Passarini said that Williams' employees Patrick Head and Adrian Newey should be convicted in relation to Ayrton Senna's fatal crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in May, 1994.

Passarini recommended that magistrate Antonio Costanzo give Head, the team's cofounder and technical director, and chief designer Newey, now with McLaren, a oneyear suspended jail sentence.

All six have denied the charges.

The summing up was immediately savaged by defence lawyer Oreste Dominioni, who is representing both Head and Williams, and who claimed that Passarini's case was without foundation.

The prosecutor, meanwhile, also called for manslaughter charges against three track officials to be dropped.

The trio are Federico Bendinelli, head of the SAGIS company which rented the Imola track for the race, the then Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) circuit inspector Roland Bruynseraede, who had declared it safe and the then clerk of the course Giorgio Poggi.

In a landmark case, the first in which a Formula One team faced such charges, the next moves are for Dominioni and the other defence lawyers to make their points, before Costanzo reaches a verdict.

Passarini spent most of the day going over familiar ground, namely his belief that Senna's modified steering column failed as he approached the Tamburello bend at nearly 200mph - causing him to crash into concrete wall.

However, Passarini sprung a nasty surprise on Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), announcing that several of its officials were to face investigation for alleged perjury.

Ecclestone himself never testified and is therefore not concerned by the inquiry to be led by Bologna's main attorney.

But Passarini indicated that letters received by the legal authorities from Ecclestone would be examined to see if there was potentially a separate case to answer, for example, of favouritism.

Explaining his different conclusions, Passarini said that Williams himself handled the business and administrative side of the sport - as the Englishman had testified here only last week.

He therefore could not be held directly responsible for Senna's crash; and an identical argument was also used to clear Bendinelli.

Bendinelli, himself a lawyer, said: "I was calm and confident right from the start. I was convinced the circuit bore no responsibility for what happened, and that neither did Frank Williams, whose position is the same as mine."

However, Passarini said that Head and Newey were ultimately responsible for checking the engineering which went into shortening Senna's steering column, and asked for them therefore to be convicted.

Though there were smiles on several defence lawyers' faces yesterday evening, Costanzo may yet decide to ignore Passarini's recommendations and find Williams or any of the others guilty as originally charged.

The trial continues with the summing of the defence cases on November 11th, 12th, 14th and 18th, the reply from the prosecution on November 21th and the counter-response from the defence on November 26th.

Costanzo is expected to reach a verdict some time next month.