FORMULA ONE team owner Frank Williams said yesterday he would appear in court in Imola on February 20th when the case against him and his team over the death of Ayrton Senna opens.

Speaking in London at the announcement of a new sponsorship deal for his team, Williams said he felt it was right to appear in the Imola courtroom to represent his company. "Why should I not go?" he said. "I know one is not obliged to, but I think it is correct to represent the company. It is my job."

Williams said he had made his own decision and had not "even asked the lawyer if it is the right thing to do". He said later he expected both his engineering director Patrick Head and chief designer Adrian Newey to attend.

He added that the inquiry and the case had "been hanging around for 30 months" but that the waiting had not been a strain. "It has been a worry. It is not the same thing. You have to understand that the law in Italy is above everything else and you have to respect the law.

"A death at a race track in Italy has to be investigated and I am participating very willingly in that investigation. I am planning to go there on the 19th and I know what to expect. It is only a small magistrates court."

Williams has been charged with culpable homicide in connection with Senna's death during the opening laps of the San Marino Grand Prix on May 1st, 1994. Five others have also been charged - Head, Newey, director of the Imola race circuit Federico Bendinelli former track official Giorgio Poggi and the race director and official starter, Roland Bruynseraede.

An expert report compiled by the Italian investigators into the crash has been alleged to have revealed that faulty modifications to the steering column of Senna's car led to the fatal accident. Williams and his team have denied this" allegation strenuously but have not had access to the wrecked car since the accident.

The Dakar-Agades-Dakar rally claimed its 34th fatality yesterday when French motorcyclist Jean-Pierre-Leduc was killed in a crash halfway through the second, stage in Mali. Leduc (45) fell from his KTM bike after 247 km in the 505-km stage from Toumbacounda to Kayes.

The second stage, which took the competitors from Senegal to Mali, was won by French driver Jean-Louis Schlesser,