Brits on Pole

Compound fractures, gold medals and the hitherto completely unsuspected fluffy side of Dietrich ‘Didi’ Mateschitz. Read on for the best of the week’s F1 and motorsport news…

Jenson Button’s gone down a storm at an event in Japan designed to say thank you to Honda’s loyal motorsport fans for their support during 2008.

Construction of the new grand prix-worthy circuit at Donington Park is set to take nine months and has finance in place, according to the venue’s CEO Simon Gillett. He has also revealed that the circuit plans to deal with potential congestion problems on the race weekend by banning cars.

The BBC has finally got around to confirming what we all knew already - that David Coulthard and Martin Brundle will make up the crux of its next year’s F1 team.

At last! Details of how to get your hands on what is shaping up to be this year’s must-have Christmas pressie. Motorsport merchandiser OnPole.com now has the kit available for pre-order - in limited numbers, so if you want one you had better get your name down now.

Team GB pilot Danny Watts has laid down a marker for this weekend’s event in Sepang, Malaysia, after topping the timesheets in the first rookie practice session and then improving on that to take the fastest lap of the weekend so far.

The sixth entrant in this year’s McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year competition has been named - Aaron Steele joins the shortlist after winning the last open spot in a Formula Palmer Audi shootout.

Gosh, what a week. You’d never know we were in the F1 close season, would you? Join us in ignoring the credit crisis, the ugly-duckling cars and the loss of races, and instead searching out some of the more fun and interesting things to happen this week.

It was down to business on the third and last day of Barcelona testing but, even with most of the newbies on the plane home, the cars from the Red Bull stable were able to retain their dominance.

Does the Donington Park planning delay matter? Probably no, not much - but what matter an awful lot more are the attitudes revealed in these latest exchanges.