In normal times, only the death of a driver would stop the winner of a Formula One race uncorking the champagne and soaking his rivals on the podium. There is no precedent for the death of an entire race.

Even the thick-skinned Michael Schumacher kept the cork in when he was handed a magnum of Mumm after leading home a Ferrari one-two in yesterday's ill-fated US Grand Prix. After 14 cars had refused to start in a row over tyre safety, there was not much to celebrate.

Thousands of jeering fans pressed towards the podium, holding up their middle fingers in derision. Organisers of the race at the Indianapolis Brickway have now to decide who pays to refund 120,000 fans who came from all over the Midwest for a festival of motor racing, only to be served up a farce as the two Ferraris sped away from the sport's four slowest cars.

The recriminations began immediately. Michelin, the French tyre company, was blamed for giving its seven teams the wrong tyres for the job. Ferrari, the most powerful team in the sport, was blamed for refusing to accept a compromise proposal. And Max Mosley of the FIA, which governs Formula One, stood accused alongside ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone of allowing the race to descend into a fiasco.

For British motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss it was "an absolute bloody disgrace" which let down millions of racing fans around the world. David Coulthard, the Scottish Red Bull driver, who was among the 14 drivers to drop out after the parade lap, was "sick in the stomach".

"The fact is that mature adults were not able to put on a show for everybody. It’s a very sad day for racing," Coulthard said. "Even if we do come back, half the crowd in the stands today won’t be back. That’s for sure."

The row began after Schumacher's brother, Ralf, spun into a wall at 180mph during Friday's free practice. An investigation showed that his tyres were to blame, but the seven Michelin teams were told that they could not use the replacement tyres that were immediately sent out without incurring a penalty.

There followed a two-day stand-off that did not appear to have been resolved until the very last minute, when all 20 drivers lined up on the grid, only for the Michelin teams to drop out before the race proper.

Apart from the spectators rightly demanding their money back, team sponsors will also be lining up to claim compensation - as will the organisers of the race, who pay heavily for the right to host the Grand Prix. Who pays what should keep the sports business lawyers busy for some time.

Michelin said "sorry" last night that its tyres had not been suitable, but insisted that safety had to be its primary concern. The seven Michelin teams sent out a similar message.

But the damage has already been done by the unedifiying spectacle of a race ending before it had even begun, while thousands of people who had spent hundreds of dollars on tickets watched in bemusement.

Paul Stoddart, boss of the Minardi team, sent his two drivers out to race on their Bridgestone tyres, despite earlier backing the attempt by the Michelin teams to introduce a chicane. But he said the seven world championship points his team earned as they finished last and second-to-last in the six-strong field gave him no pleasure at all.

"It did not happen as far as I’m concerned," the Australian told Planet-f1.com. "I don’t care about the points, I’m not in the slightest bit interested, it was a sad day for Formula One.

"The damage is immeasurable ... you wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t want to have another grand prix here and I don’t blame them one little bit."

Formula One has always struggled to win over the US market. One Grand Prix, in Phoenix, Arizona, famously sold fewer tickets than an ostrich race across town on the same afternoon.

But the sport had gradually been making inroads, even if the crowd at Indianapolis was only around half of that at an Indy500 race. Los Angeles and New York were reportedly next on Mr Ecclestone's list of potential target venues.

In the fog of self-interest that always envelops Formula One - even on the sunniest day in Monte Carlo or Melbourne - no side will accept the blame for what happened in Indiana yesterday.

Mosley pointed out that the FIA had offered the Michelin teams three options - to race with the new tyres and accept the penalty, to change their tyres throughout the race for safety reasons, or to slow down at the offending corner. They refused a demand from all ten teams except for Ferrari to build a chicane to slow down the racers as they approached the corner.

"Formula One and motor sport fans throughout the World are the losers today. The FIA is now awaiting a report from its observer in Indianapolis before deciding on the next step," Mr Mosley said.

Ecclestone added: "I tried a million things and thought that if we could get them on the grid we were halfway there. But it did not happen. We were just starting to build a great image in America on TV and with the fans. All of that has gone out of the window."

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