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Senna’s Death Might Be Treated as a Homicide : Auto racing: Safety of Imola track in Italy called into question.

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From Associated Press

While Ayrton Senna’s technical crew studied the information in the “black box” data-logging system from the Formula One car in which the former world champion was killed Sunday at Imola, Italy, Italian authorities said Tuesday that the death might be treated as a possible homicide.

Federico Bendinelli, managing director of the company that owns the Imola track, was told by police that he was being investigated, based on the possibility that the notoriously fast Imola track played a role in the crashes during the weekend of the Grand Prix of San Marino. Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger also died in a crash during Saturday’s qualifying.

Race organizers said they could not comment while the investigation continued, and officials of the FIA, the sport’s international governing body, said the track passed a safety check last week.

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The English Williams-Renault team for which Senna drove was trying to find an answer in the black box, hoping the computerized data it contained would provide a clue as to why Senna failed to turn left at the Tamburello curve and instead went head-on into a concrete barrier at about 180 m.p.h.

“The team wishes to point out that any theories from any source as to the cause of Ayrton Senna’s accident are pure speculation,” Williams said in a statement. “A thorough investigation is being undertaken utilizing the available data.”

Williams, however, was still unable to examine the wreckage from the car, which has been impounded by Italian authorities.

The Simtek Ford team also was examining data in the black box from Ratzenberger’s car, although television replays indicated a mechanical problem had caused his crash.

Williams and Simtek will present their findings to FIA, which has scheduled a meeting in Paris today to review the events.

At the Bologna airport, Italian police lined the pathway and presented arms as Senna’s coffin was loaded onto a plane for the trip to his hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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Earlier, about 500 mourners had stood silently outside the city morgue as an autopsy was performed. Traffic was blocked, and some people fainted.

Medical officials made no statement after the autopsy, although the Italian news agency, ANSA, reported that doctors had ruled out sudden illness before the crash.

Meanwhile, the tributes continued.

Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, in a telegram to Brazilian President Itamar Franco, mourned the driver’s death, expressing disapproval that the race was not stopped after the crash.

Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, wrote in an Italian newspaper, “Senna was the greatest for all of us, one of the greatest of all time.”

In Sao Paulo, Franco decreed three days of national mourning and ordered flags flown at half staff. He also decreed that Senna posthumously receive the Grand Cross of Merit, one of Brazil’s highest awards.

Senna’s body is expected to arrive in Sao Paulo today. A fire truck will carry his coffin from the airport to the state legislature building, where the body will lie in state until burial Thursday.

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Police hope huge crowds of fans will not jam the airport and the 25-mile route to the legislature.

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