Jerez testing, the final session before the autumn hiatus, was dominated by
Ferrari, with Marc Gene and Schumacher topping the times on the first three days. The German had not been scheduled to test, but cancelled a holiday to attend, making a mockery of his own claim that the title had been lost at Suzuka. Schumacher continued to insist that he was working towards constructors' success for the Scuderia...
Robert Kubica topped the final day, but had only Alex Wurz and Narain Karthikeyan as opposition.
Organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix served notice of an appeal against the record fine imposed on them for a breach of podium protocol at this year's event. The
FIA slapped a $5million punishment on the event after Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat presented the winner's trophy to
Felipe Massa, having been announced as the 'president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus'. Despite getting off lightly - many expected Turkey to be cast into the motorsport wilderness - the antional motorsport authority and the event organisers are both lobbying to have the fine reduced.
Turkey will definitely be joined on next year's calendar by Belgium, after Spa's return to the schedule was confirmed at a signing ceremony attended by
Bernie Ecclestone. The current deal is for just one year, however, with three options on the table to cover 2008-10, including one for Ecclestone to take over promotion of the event himself.
Prodrive's new
F1 arm has confirmed that, despite rumours to the contrary, it has no intention of selling on its 2008 entry as the row over teams using others' chassis technology lingers on. The Banbury-based concern told
Crash.net that it was continuing to talk to potential suppliers, and would be on the grid in 18 months' time.
