SILVERSTONE, England -- Arrows has met a key deadline to enter the British Grand Prix, but a cash crisis has kept it off the track.

The ruling International Automobile Federation (FIA) said the team's cars had passed preliminary scrutineering after failing to turn up at Silverstone for Thursday's original deadline.

"The cars were found to be in conformity with the safety requirements of the 2002 FIA Formula One technical regulations," the FIA said in a statement.

However, sources close to Cosworth, the team's Ford-owned engine makers, said they were still awaiting a payment of some $4.7 million owed by Arrows. Without the money, the team cannot race.

First free practice started Friday without the Arrows drivers, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi, who had turned up for duty in a rainswept paddock.

Bernoldi appeared briefly in the garage, watching mechanics work on a stationary car, but his helmet remained on a shelf and he did not get in the machine.

The team must pay Cosworth before Saturday afternoon's qualifying session or miss Sunday's race, with serious consequences for its future.

Jaguar team principal Niki Lauda, who also oversees Cosworth, allowed Arrows to have the electronic units (ECU) that control the engines in order to pass scrutineering.

But he said Thursday the team would not be allowed the ECUs to qualify or race until payment was received.

FIA sources said there was no obligation for the team to participate in practice, but added that it would have to qualify Saturday for the race.

The rules on what constitutes a race appearance are complicated, but teams must be deemed to have made a meaningful attempt to compete in order to avoid heavy sanctions.

That effectively left Arrows, described in the London High Court on Thursday as being doomed short of a miracle, with a further day's grace to find a solution.

Team owner Tom Walkinshaw met race stewards Friday morning and then Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

"I don't know, I will have to tell you all a little bit later," he told reporters when asked about the situation. "We are not doing any interviews until we have clarity on one or two things. First I have to go and see the boss."

On Thursday, Arrows' lawyer Robin Potts, asked in court if the company was "finished," agreed that it was, "short of a miracle."

"At the present time the prognosis is that the company is doomed," he said.