ISTANBUL - Organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix will appeal the five-million-dollar fine that motoring sport`s world governing body, FIA, handed them over a podium controversy last month.
Following a series of meetings here, the Turkish Automobile Sports Federation (TOSFED) and co-organisers MSO agreed to appeal to FIA to reduce the fine, MSO managing director Baran Asena said, cited by NTV television.
According to NTV, the deadline for the organisers to appeal the fine is Tuesday.
Asena said the organisers of the Grand Prix were not opposed to the fine per se but to the amount, which they consider "too high".
The dispute erupted after last month`s Formula One event in Istanbul, only the second to be held in Turkey, when Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat made the trophy presentation, drawing angry protests from Greek Cypriots.
Talat is the president of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is recognized only by Ankara. The Greek Cypriot government in the south is internationally recognized as the administration of the whole island, divided along ethnic lines since 1974.
FIA ruled last week that the organisers had broken Formula One rules for politicising the event by allowing the leader of an unrecognised country to do the ceremony.
09/26/2006 12:09 GMT