Heidfeld excluded from home GP.

Nick Heidfeld's miserable debut season continued at the European Grand Prix this afternoon [Saturday], when he was excluded from the meeting for running underweight.

Technical delegates from the FIA reported the anomaly to race stewards during the qualifying hour and, after the matter was referred to the Prost team, Heidfeld was excluded from the event - the first he was to have run on home soil.

The full FIA statement issued following the announcement reads as follows:

''The technical delegate reported that the weight of car no. 15 (driver Nick Heidfeld) was taken during the qualifying practice at 13.13hrs. The weight of the car did not conform to article 4.1 of the FIA technical regulations as the car weighed 598kgs.

The stewards summoned the competitor team Gauloises Prost Peugeot.

As the procedure followed for the weighing included a check of the weighing equipment with the test weights, the competitor accepted the car being underweight, when weighed during qualifying practice.

The stewards therefore apply article 82c of the FIA Formula One sporting regulations, and exclude car no. 15 from the 2000 European Grand Prix.''

The cars of Pedro Diniz, Mika Salo, David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button and Pedro de la Rosa were also weighed, but passed. Diniz was, however, fined for speeding in the pit-lane.

Heidfeld's exclusion from an impressive 13th on the grid promotes all those behind him by one place.