THE FORMULA one world champion Damon Hill told a court in Imola, Italy yesterday that he did not believe Ayrton Senna's fatal crash in 1994 was caused by a steering column failure.

Six men face manslaughter charges after the tragedy at the San Marino Grand Prix team owner Frank Williams, technical director Patrick Head and chief designer Adrian Newey, along with three race officials.

State prosecutor Maurizio Passarini claims that Senna's modified steering column failed as the Brazilian took the Tamburello curve, fatally sending his car into a concrete wall at high speed.

But Hill, who was Senna's Williams teammate at the time, rejected the theory as he came under questioning by Passarini.

The British driver, who left Williams for the Arrows team this season, said that video footage showed Senna's car giving signs of oversteer as it reached Tamburello - possibly caused by a cooling of the tyres or a fall in tyre pressure after four laps spent trailing the safety car.

The safety car had been called in after a collision at the start of the race.

However, Hill said he did not believe that the steering column was to blame for the accident.

He added that such a possibility was never even discussed when he joined Williams engineers in a meeting to discuss the crash a few days afterwards.

Hill also undermined another of the prosecution's claims - that the ruling Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA) had failed to supply all the film shot by the onboard camera in Senna's car.

FOCA and the ruling International Automobile Federation (FIA) have always maintained that the footage ended before Senna's car left the track. There are no missing frames because the film was never shot, they say.