THE CANADIAN Grand Prix head doctor yesterday denied that track officials made the wrong decision when they immediately pulled stricken Frenchman Olivier Panis out of his car after his crash.

Panis, third in the driver's championship, crashed on the 52nd lap at Montreal when his car smashed into a wall and then rebounded into a wall of tyres.

Head doctor Jacques Bouchard said the initial help to Panis, who was immediately pulled out of his car, was the best it could have been. "Certainly, the track officials had not done the standard procedure, but they did not have any other choice," Bouchard said.

Race assistant doctor Ronald Denis, commenting on the immediate moving of Panis, said: "He had to be helped because he was trying to get out of the car himself. He would have fallen on the floor."

Meanwhile, doctors predicted Panis could return to France in less than a week. He had a successful operation last night, and medical staff at the Sacre-Coeur hospital confirmed the surgery went well.

The Prost team said yesterday that they would use Emmanuel Collard as Panis's replacement. He will take part in a practice session at the Magny-Cours circuit today.

Eddie Irvine returned to Dublin from Canada yesterday to find his new garage in Dalkey wrecked: "It's just newly built. A lot of the windows were broken and there was gas leaking through the meter which was smashed," he said yesterday. Reflecting on his race in Canada on Sunday which ended at the second corner, he opined: "It's a shame. There were points to be had."