Friday 9 May at 19:57 : Team principal Ross Brawn has defended Honda team colleague Nick Fry amid suggestions the CEO worked to topple the satellite outfit Super Aguri.

Aguri Suzuki, and failed team saviour Franz Josef Weigl commented this week that Fry, who appointed Brawn as his successor as Honda team principal for this year and beyond, was instrumental in Super Aguri's collapse.

"I am sure it is a very difficult time for Aguri. He has worked for two years on this project and he realised the end had come, and when he reflects on some of the things he said I am sure he will reflect differently," Brawn told a news conference in Istanbul on Friday.

Also on the scene of Sunday's Turkish grand prix, Fry himself insisted that he cannot be held responsible for Super Aguri's problems, despite rumours that he instructed Bernie Ecclestone to refuse the team access to the paddock this weekend.

Fry had also been openly dismissive of the proposed Weigl buyout, after earlier assisting his friend Martin Leach's ultimately failed Magma deal.

Brawn, insisting that the Magma deal was the only "viable solution", said: "What I saw was Nick making big efforts to keep the project alive."