MICHAEL SCHUMACHER regained the lead in the drivers' championship when he was declared the winner of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal yesterday.

The Ferrari driver was two seconds ahead of secondplaced Jean Alesi after 54 laps of the scheduled 69 lap race when it was halted because of a crash by Alesi's fellow Frenchman Olivier Panis.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella recorded the best result of his career to take third place for Jordan ahead of Germany's Heinz Harald Frentzen in a Williams.

Ralf Schumacher's Jordan plunged off circuit and speared into a tyre wall at the entry to the Senna curve. It was a major accident but the 21 year old German walked away unhurt.

Panis, in a Prost car, crashed after 51 laps at high speed into the barriers, wrecking the front end of his vehicle. He was lifted from the cockpit and taken by helicopter to hospital. The race continued behind a safety car for three laps before being stopped.

Panis suffered double fractures to both legs.