Minardi gets money.

Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that the struggling Minardi team has now been paid the money it has been chasing to secure its presence on the grid through the rest of 2002.

The Anglo-Italian team had been claiming a share of television revenue and performance-related pay ever since the Prost team went out of business over the winter, with team boss Paul Stoddart warning last month that the team could follow the French operation into closure should it not be paid.

Lengthy meetings between the eleven team bosses failed to resolve the issue of whether Minardi was entitled to the money, and whether it should be paid anything at all, but the FIA and the World Motor Sport Council decided on Wednesday that some financial help would be given.

"We took a decision that we would pay Minardi," Ecclestone told news agency Reuters as he left the WMSC meeting in Paris yesterday, "The matter is now closed."

Ecclestone added that, should any of the other ten teams disagree with the decision to pay Minardi, the situation could end up in court. Rumour has it that at least two teams were vehemently opposed to Stoddart's tiny outfit getting the money, although the Australian himself was confident that the lifeline would come through.

"If [the teams] want to go to arbitration, they can go to arbitration," Ecclestone said.

Team bosses have predicted all season that at least one team may go under before the year was out, with several thought to be on the brink following a slow down in the global economy.