IMOLA TRACK chief, Federico Bendinelli, who could face trial with Frank Williams and four others over the death of Ayrton Senna, said yesterday he had expected to be indicted over the 1994 tragedy.

Bendinelli, managing director of the SAGIS group which runs the track, was responding to reports that an Italian prosecutor had obtained leave to indict him and five other people on charges of manslaughter.

"I am not worried because I know I am innocent," Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper quoted Bendinelli as saying in London, where he attended a Formula One meeting.

"It was obvious to me that we would reach this point because I also understand the political motives, or let's say reasons of opportunity, why the prosecutor could not drop the case against all the Italians.

"But I'm confident because the track was certified so we can't be held responsible. Everything was in order on the unfortunate day that Senna died. It was a tragedy for Formula One but Imola just doesn't enter into it."

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that Bologna prosecutor Maurizio Passarini was poised to charge Williams, team technical manager Patrick Head and Belgian race director Roland Bruinseraede with manslaughter.

The others were Bendinelli, the then track director Giorgio Poggi and an unnamed Williams mechanic whom investigators allege carried out modifications to the steering column of Senna's car.

No official confirmation has come from judicial authorities and the Williams team has not commented on the report.

Brazilian Senna, three time, world champion, suffered fatal head injuries when his Williams car smashed into a wall on Imola's Tamburello curve during the race on May 1st, 1994.

An expert report for Bologna investigators concluded the car's steering column had been modified and snapped as the car took the curve as a result of a poor weld.

The Williams team has argued that the steering column was intact until the moment of impact.

Poggi, who is now retired, said he also considered himself innocent of any blame for Senna's death, saying that the Imola circuit met international safety standards.

The paper said Passarini, reported to have obtained leave to proceed from an examining judge, had 10 days to draw up his indictment before a trial could take place in Imola.

It said a trial was unlikely to begin before late January 1997 and that it could be four years before any verdict became definitive under Italian law, which allows all parties an automatic right of appeal up to the country's highest court.

. Three times world champion Jackie Stewart said yesterday that his new Formula One Grand Prix team had signed a one year sponsorship deal with the Malaysian government.

"This is the first time a nation has sponsored a Formula One team to this extent," Stewart said at a news conference in the Malaysian High Commission. "I think it illustrates Malaysia's interest in expansion."

Stewart would not reveal how much the deal was worth but said. It was unlikely he would need another major sponsor following his announcement earlier this year of a multi million pound deal with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

"I am on record as saying it is about a £20 million effort for a full programme, and although some teams operate on less than that, that is probably what we will have.

"Scots never talk about money and we would prefer to keep the details of this arrangement among ourselves. The funding is pretty much in place."