Silverstone Testing Report 11th-12th September

[Minardi fan]

Day 1:

Present: Burti (Jaguar), Manning and Lemarie (BAR).

It was a somewhat quiet day at Silverstone today due to a lack of drivers.

The weather was hot hot hot, and all three drivers did a great amount of laps throughout the morning. However, both BAR's sounded extremely rough at first, and it was obvious to see they were suffering from a lot of understeer.

A jaunt to Buckingham was made at lunchtime for a ferret around the lovely F1 shop, where a new Minardi fleece was purchased at a bargain £26.10p.

In the afternoon, Burti did no laps at all, and it was not until 3.30pm that the BAR's came out onto the track. Both BAR's now appeared to have their backends slipping about all over the place.

Manning ran a great many laps, at least half an hours worth, joined by Lemarie.

F1 STALKER'S 'BIT':

Burti was nabbed in the morning by the three of us waiting for drivers. Manning went in and we didn't realise it was him until much later, whilst the seemingly invisible Lemarie got in just before we arrived.

In the evening, Burti was in a bit of a hurry, but Manning was wonderful and signed autographs for everyone, and even had a bit of a chat.

Someone either a) poncy or b) important or c) both was driven from the circuit in a huuuuge white limousine with blacked-out windows.

Lemarie meanwhile remained hidden in the motorhome at least until 8.30pm when we finally left the circuit.

STAR OF THE DAY:

The BAR mechanic who first had to drive off to find petrol, came back and told us he thought Jacques would be arriving later, then went into the paddock and drove back to tell us that Lemarie was still in there and JV was not.

PRAT OF THE DAY:

Jock 'Jacques' Clear. He failed to stop at about 8.15pm... (By the way his rusty old car is for sale, and there is a sign in the window with the price on if anyone is interested.)

Tomorrow, we look forward to the first EVER B.A.R-becue!!!

Drivers due tomorrow:

Manning, Villeneuve, Burti?, Scheckter?, Karthikeyan?, and the McLaren team.

[Minardi fan]

I don't have time to report on today's goings-on - you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out just who we nabbed.

However, I will spell one thing out to you.

P.A.D.D.O.C.K

Yes, my friends, it's true...

[Minardi fan]

We got in the paddock at about 3.45pm (thanks Tony the Security Guard), and immediately spied Zonta standing by the motorhome. He was in a foul mood because he'd just gone off. When he finished talking to his engineer, we rushed over - Vicky got his autograph and a pic with him, and I decided to wait because we could see he really didn't want to be bothered.

I got Zonta when he was packing his car to leave, and this was swiftly followed by Villeneuve leaving his motorhome and us mobbing him.

We also met Lemarie, and I had a chat with Manning at lunchtime as he arrived at the circuit.

That's it, F1 stalking is over for the year....