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It's all been happening around Barcelona for the last few weeks and this has been my reason for this report being so late. I got into Barcelona early in the week to see the United v Barca champions league match before heading to the track, and what a match that was. Nah, not really. But in F1 news, there's been some interesting stories of late. Honda have made an official statement that Rubens will start a record 257th grand prix in Turkey. Some seem to think Rubens' 257th grand prix was here in Barcelona, and others think it will be in Monaco. The issue goes back to Imola in 1994, where he was injured in practice and didn't race and Spa in 1998, where he took the original start, but was injured and could not restart. There is also debate on whether Spain and France in 2002 should be included, where he had problems on the formation lap. And speaking of 2002, I would add Austria to the mix, where he had problems on the final lap, where he confused the brake and accelerator. For me, he wasn't racing there, but merely going around on a Sunday drive. Then of course there are a bunch of other team order races, that you could debate about too. There is also the dud drives he's done, which when you take those out of it, really he must have only REALLY raced in about 20 grand prix.

In other news, Wili Weber has moved into the soft drink container industry, which is a huge coup for him, so much so, he's expecting to make more money from this venture then he did out of Schumi, and the other news of interest to me, was that Hans Stuck reckons Danica Patrick is good enough for F1. He says that she would be the key to cracking the US market and that with some testing a nd a season in GP2 she would be good enough for F1. I totally agree with him. Surely she can't be any worse than some that have gone before her.... Ide, Nissany, Yamamoto, etc, etc.

And the last bit of F1 news and gossip goes to the Max Mosely update. The latest is that Jean Todt and AJ have come out in support of Max. AJ was quoted as saying "I care more about what he does in the office than what he's doing in the bed - I don't know that even the majority of people would frown upon what he did. The only crime he committed was being caught". Ah, that's so AJ.... I also heard, or maybe it was wishful thinking, that Max is going to Monaco... I can't find the report now, but I'm sure I heard that. Anyway, if he does, I'm sure he'll be only too happy to put me up again, and it will be praty time again. This time I'll try and send some photos to Gladious for the report.

To the race, and unfortunately, I missed qualifying.... too hung over, and the race... again, too hung over, nah had other things going on, but I did manage to see the last 10 laps or so, and from what I could make from that it was a standard Spanish GP apart from the two safety car periods. Of course the big one was for Heikki's acco. He went flying into that wall, and a little birdy inside McLaren tells me that he did this as part of the rectifying of race relations... You see this was the corner where the fans were dressed up as golliwogs during testing. Heikki thought he saw them there again, so tried to run them over, under instruction by Ron Dennis. That's the sort of team-mate they have found for Lewis this year, but alas, it looks like it won't be enough. Ferrari seem to have a clear advantage and Spain has generally been a blueprint to the season. Since 1995, only twice has the polesitter not won the championship. Those two times were last year, Massa, and 2005, Kimi. So, get on Kimi now, it's going to take something special from Lewis or Robby K, for him to be beaten, or possibly even Renault.

Renault made a huge step forward at this race, and that may be why the engine blew. They might have turned the wick up too much, looking for a podium for Fernando. It wasn't too be, but they are definitely moving forward with Nelsinho getting his first top ten in qualifying. So just when you thought this season was hard enough to pick, it might get even harder.

In the underSteer results, the race was a three way tie between the yo-yo (aka: dante05), Iceman Return's and Roccos Ring Racing. dante05 moves into 10th position after two wins and two sub 40th's. Iceman Return's is tied in third overall and moving back into the lead is The Webbernator. Perhaps The Webbernator recent nuptuals have had the same effect they did on Ricky Ponting?

For me, the most poignant comment this round was by PASOK. "I propose the lowest score this GP gets to carry the Olympic torch through the Tibetan nutbags." The result, PASOK came third last.... and looking at his picks it doesn't seem as if it was intentional. I think he just fecked up. Well this week, it's off to Turkey, and word is Daryl is doing the report, probably so he can talk about how Turkey charged him for entering the country... And speaking of Daryl last year, one last aside before I go.... I saw a Daryl look-alike the other day... The fella who plays the violin/guitar in The Bad Seeds reminded me of Daryl, especially when he was playing seriously... he would look away from the crowd towards the drummer, then when he was "going mad", he was lying and curling up on the floor and squirming around like he was Daryl sleeping in some random train station in Eastern Europe. As for Nick Cave, he's looking more and more like Sectarian Racing every day.

Good luck in Turkey... Will Super Aguri be let in..... Not with those shoes, I reckon.