THE World Championship title favourite Jacques Villeneuve opened his 1997 account with an authoriative victory in yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix after benefitting from the race being red flagged after the first corner run offs.

Villeneuve ended the 196 mile race with a five second margin over Gerhart Berger, who led a mighty impressive Olivier Panis in the Bridgestone shod Prost.

The Jordan team missed the points table with Giancarlo Fisichella finishing eighth and Ralf Schumacher dropping out with electrical trouble at three quarters distance.

Villeneuve was in the pole position but once again made a bad start and Michael Schumacher powered past in the run into the first corner. Side by side they rounded the bend but as Schumacher went wide, Villeneuve had no choice but to take to the grass. It was remarkably similar to the first corner at Melbourne except a different Ferrari driver was involved and Schumacher's status ensured there was no riposte from Villeneuve about the incident - inside line has the corner, end of story - that's been racing from day dot.

Villeneuve's win - along with Heinz Harald Frentzen's dismal display - put the French Canadian into an undoubted number one status within Williams and makes him the firm championship favourite.

Villeneuve was pleased with his win: "It's great especially after coming away from Melbourne with nothing. At the first start I went a bit too fast into the corner," said the Swiss educated son of Gilles Villeneuve. The car was very good - the brake problem is completely cured and it's very strong on the straight."

Villeneuve was beaten off the line at the second start by Schumacher but within a lap the power of the Renault V10 swept him past and into a lead he only surrendered during the pit stops.

Schumacher made the best of the ill-handling Ferrari, bringing, it home in fifth place after running at the front on both opening laps while poor Eddie Irvine had his least competitive race in 50 Formula One starts.

"I had problems with grip at the front and back in practice," said a downbeat Irvine. "I had to change cars for the restart and it was set up for Michael. It was very uncomfortable," said the Ulsterman whose long back requires a special seat and who was in agony from his seat belts for much of what is a very demanding race physically at the best of times.

The strength of the Bridgestone challenge to Goodyear yielded Prost their first podium finish and puts Eddie Jordan's "natural" position in the Grand Prix pecking order under threat. Jordan have been the fifth team in three of the last four seasons, but his rivals for the Peugeot engine are aiming to take the place and their 100 per cent record of points finishes this year is the right way to go about it.

After the race, Jordan (49 yesterday) spoke about the weekend: "Well firstly it was a lot better, than Melbourne. Secondly the guys got a lot of race mileage, which they need. Thirdly if you look at the lap times we were fully competitive. Giancarlo lost a lot of time coming into the pits, each time and he's learnt from that. Otherwise he drove very well. He spent the race dicing with Coulthard - the winner a fortnight ago."

Jordan designer Gary Anderson explained Ralf Schumacher's demise on lap 52 of 72: " I think it was an alternator. It was certainly electrical. Initially the car was cutting out and we thought it was fuel, so we brought him in early, but when it reoccurred the source was clear."

The race was encouraging for Damon Hill, who used his Bridgestones to run as high as fourth in the vastly improved Arrows Yamaha. The car was easy on the tyres and strong on the straight - even Frentzen's Williams struggled to keep up - and Hill only dropped out in the dying laps when an oil union cracked. The team have made tremendous progress since Melbourne, where Hill failed to complete the parade lap, and he goes to Argentina with some expectation of a points finish.