Spain F1

Despite his boy tooling around at the back of the field for much of the Spanish Grand Prix, before finishing seven places behind his team mate, Nelson Piquet’s dad still reckons that  junior was better than Fernando Alonso.

“For the first time… Nelsinho was better than Alonso,” triple world champion Piquet Snr, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, without going into too much detail as to how he worked this out.  We can’t help but wonder if Flavio Briatore agreed with him…

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton consoled himself after a similarly dismal Spanish Grand Prix by nipping over to Portofino, Italy for a spot of jet ski fun with Nicole Scherzinger (does anybody else find her a bit on the scary side?) to the delight of the British tabloid photographers.

Sadly, on arrival, the captain managed to park the yacht in a restricted marine reserve, landing the world champ with a  £45 fine.

If you haven’t been cleaned out by paying parking fines for your yacht, then get your Monaco tickets here and for pete’s sake, would some of you please buy something more expensive then those cheap seats on the mountain overlooking the track.

The big news coming out of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend was not Jenson Buttons crushing, fourth win of the season, Ferrari’s new exploration of the depths of awfulness or even the news that Sebastien Bourdais broke the record for… the most gallic shrug’s in one day – no, it was that Lewis Hamilton looked ‘Loved-up’.

‘Now’ magazine, not known for its automotive journalism, says; “Hamilton got a good luck kiss from girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday, the couple also looked loved-up as they were seen larking around in his McLaren team garage on Saturday”

It goes on; “Lewis, 24, playfully carried the Pussycat Doll, 30, and let her sit on his racer.” Possibly too much information there.

The magazines race report was however, mercifully brief, consisting just of the one line “But he later struggled into ninth place at the circuit in Barcelona”

Probably best to leave it at that..

Need to impress the current squeeze? Take her to Italy  you get to see a great race and she can buy some shoes. Everybody wins..

08 May, Barcelona. After weeks of having to slum it in luxury, purpose-built accommodation for the flyaway races, F1 teams are back on familiar ground in their huge motorhomes for the start of the European season.

While BMW Sauber still have… their big white tent, Brawn have what looks like two chest freezers bolted together, McLaren have kept Dennis Towers (now under new management) and Red Bull still have what looks like a branch of IKEA, Ferrari have embraced the looming budget cap by bring two office blocks.
The two, four storey buildings, one each for Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe ‘cool it baby’ Massa, are said to be visible from space and cost more than a Scottish bankers pension.

Sadly, the motorhomes are so massive that during construction an inquisitive Massa wandered in for a look and was accidentally boarded in. The Brazilian was only found after his plaintive cries for help were heard by race engineer Rob Smedley

Picture www.f1news.nl

Only a few days ago we reported that the Spanish Grand Prix could be affected by a plague of locusts (see Ten Plagues story) but if you believe reports today, it is not insects but pigs who could see off the race.

According… to the World Health Organisation it is thought that, in the whole of Europe, the Catalunya region has the greatest number of suspected swine flu cases and this could see the cancellation of the event.

It’s a bit like the huge panic a couple of years back, when because somebody found a dead swan in Scotland, officials said that the British Grand Prix may have to be canned in case the spectators caught bird flu.

Believe it when you see it…