F1 to pay its respects in Monza

Grand Prix racing is to observe a European-wide three-minute silence on Friday to honour the thousands who died in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington earlier this week.

The sport is joining in the European Union's designated official period of silence. The morning's free practice session is to start early and end early to allow the silence to be observed at midday local time (11:00 BST).

Formula 1 team bosses have also decided that no engines will be run for 10 minutes.

The last time the sport observed a minute's silence at Monza was following the death of the Princess of Wales in a Paris car accident in 1997.

The move follows a Thursday meeting of team bosses in the Monza paddock to decide whether the Italian race should be cancelled following the attacks on the USA in which more than 20,000 people are believed to have died.

They also discussed whether the US Grand Prix, due to be held in just over two weeks time, should still take place and the security risks for an estimated 200,000 fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"We had a meeting and we discussed lots of things," said Benetton-Renault team boss Flavio Briatore. "And it will be business as usual this weekend. At the moment, we plan to race this weekend, then in American and Japan."

Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart added: "The only difference there will be this weekend is that practice on Friday will start and finish a little bit earlier.

"This is because we are going to observe the three minutes' silence that is taking place everywhere as a mark of respect.

"And when we go to America in two weeks' times we will all have to appreciate that there will be more delays because security will be very tight everywhere. This has been a tremendous disaster and we have to be sympathetic to the situation."