Doctors: Senna Didn’t Die at Scene

Doctors who treated Ayrton Senna after he crashed during the San Marino Grand Prix have denied allegations that the Brazilian driver died at the Imola track.

Senna’s brother, Edoardo, and some news reports suggested the 34-year-old Formula One star died at the scene Sunday, and that it might have been covered up to avoid the summoning of a coroner and an immediate investigation, causing the race’s postponement.

Grand Prix organizers must pay heavy penalties to commercial sponsors and television networks if a race is not held on schedule.

Senna, a three-time Formula One champion, was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. at Maggiore Hospital in Bologna, about four hours after he crashed at about 180 m.p.h.

Hospital director Giuseppe Guerra said in a statement that medical reports “unequivocally show that Senna died at 6:40 p.m. Sunday when his heart stopped beating.”

“Speculations about the truthfulness of what was reported by the doctors is injurious to their professionalism,” Guerra said.

In a related matter, a 16-year-old Senna fan fatally shot herself in Curitiba, Brazil, the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported. “I’ve gone to meet Ayrton Senna,” Zuleika da Costa Rosa said in a note.