THERE were muted celebrations for Jordan driver Giancarlo Fisichella's third-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix following the premature stopping of the race at the three-quarters stage after a heavy accident left Prost driver Olivier Panis with both legs fractured.

Fisichella benefitted from an unfortunatly-timed pit-stop and engine-stall by David Coulthard who had been leading until a lap before Panis's car ploughed into a tyre-line wall.

Ralf Schumacher was lucky to escape unhurt after his Jordan Peugeot veered off the circuit at high speed early on in the race with suspected tyre failure, while it was like the bad old days for Eddie Irvine who was punted out of the race on the very first lap.

Early fears that Panis might have suffered head injuries from the tyre wall proved unfounded. An hour after the race finished and everyone was happy that this was not Imola 94 over again, Eddie Jordan spoke about the race and the result for Fisichella.

"This track has always been good to us," said the Dubliner. "We scored our first points here in '91 and the double podium in '95 was our best result ever. You need luck in motor racing and we usually get it here. Maybe it's the fact that every Irishman in North America seems to come here to cheer us on, that brings the luck of the Irish to us here!"

Fisichella catapulted from six on the grid to third by the first corner and remained in contention for the first half of the race. "Our strategy was two stops and we called him in on lap 26 (of 69)," said Jordan. "He was running in second or third for all that first stint and his tyres were not wearing badly".

Coulthard's one-stop strategy put the Scot into the lead and meant that Fisichella dropped back to fourth behind Schumacher and Alesi as the race entered its final quadrant.

The luck of the Irish then truly came into play as McLaren called Coulthard in for a precautionary second set of tyres as he headed for his second-ever win In the pits he stalled the engine, promoted Michael Schumacher to first place and Fisichella to third and shortly thereafter Panis's accident caused the safety car to come out. Some laps later as Panis was treated by Professor Watkins at trackside, the race was stopped.

Fisichella himself was pleased. "Of course we are all very sorry about Olivier and hope he will be back racing very soon. I am happy to finish on the podium. It is the first time for me in Formula One.

"This was my target for the season, so I am pleased". His boss expects a lot more than one podium from this season.

Ralf Schumacher was travelling at close to 200mph when his Jordan careered off the track, impacting with the tyre wall. Luckily the feisty 21-year-old, in fifth place at the time, could walk away from the accident.

"Well, I was at the end of the straight - going very fast - and I think the left rear tyre exploded. There was nothing I could do," said the German whose "pedal to the metal" driving style does not suit the cautious approach needed to nurse the Goodyears to last.

While Eddie Irvine had rightly predicted a win for his team mate he himself was completely out of luck. He started from 12th place on the grid.

"I made a good start and into the first corner I was between Wutz and Panis. I backed off a bit and then everyone went to the right-hand side. I went left around the outside. It was working out very well and then from nowhere someone's nose cone came flying out and hit my rear wheels and spun me off into the gravel."

In fact it was Monaco Grand Prix winner Pan is who hit the Irishman's Ferrari and Prost will be investigating whether this impact caused a failure which led to the race-stopping accident.

The result moves Michael Schumacher back into the Driver's World championship lead while Jordan close the gap to Prost to three points as the pair battle for fifth place in the Constructors Championship with the critical French Grand Prix coming up in a fortnight.