Grapevine: Straw Poll: Friday at Interlagos

Grand prix Fridays are always a little thankless when it comes to on-track stories, and anyone reading too much into the timesheets is in danger of setting themselves up for a fall tomorrow.

But there was one particularly eye-catching car on track, and for more that one reason. David Coulthard, in his final grand prix, was sporting a special one-off white livery to raise awareness for the Wings for Life charity, but it wasn't that attracting the most attention. Instead, it was the helmet camera, which gave as close to a driver-eye-view as you will ever get of the cockpit of a grand prix car.

Although far from a new innovation for racing coverage - the defunct Champ Car World Series dabbled with helmet cams a good six years ago for example - it is the first time one has been used in F1. Expect some spectacular images come the race on Sunday afternoon.

You could capture some pretty spectacular footage away from the track too. Sao Paulo taxi drivers are a very special breed and the majority have clearly spent a little too long cheering the heroics of Ayrton Senna and Felipe Massa over the years.

So give them the chance to demonstrate their skills to anyone connected to F1 and before you know it you've got an understeering FIAT Siena three-wheeling towards a wall. Unfortunately, they are not the sort of cars to encourage spectacular oversteer, at least other than of the lift-off variety.

The drivers are also very competitive. Cut one up, and there's every chance you will initiate a long-running pitched battle even if they have customers on board! Then again, given F1's last stop was Shanghai, you can't be too critical of the road manners of the Paulistas who at least have respect for some of the rules of the road.

Back in the paddock, there was one big story which was doing the rounds, albeit one which you can't imagine having a big influence on the destiny of the drivers' championship. At each race, Red Bull assemble a line-up of young ladies - called the Formula Unas - who fight it out for the crown of the Formula Una of each grand prix.

Here, the 18 "national champions" are all invited to attend what is called "the final party of the year". Inevitably, given that the girls are chosen for the usual reasons they are chosen in Formula One - the main criterion is certainly clear for all to see - they attract plenty of interest among the assembled media.

But the star of Brazil has been Montreal's Formula Una - better known as 19-year-old Katrina Lesko. As a Canadian, she needs a visa to be allowed into Brazil, and as such Red Bull informed her that she should get her paperwork sorted to make sure she could make it to Interlagos.

She diligently worked through the paperwork, and when she transferred in Washington on Wednesday was asked to present her visa.

Unusually for this kind of travel document, it was plastic and around 5.5 cm x 8.5 cm with a little hologram in the corner. You can guess what type of visa Kartrina had applied for - certainly not the type that carries much weight with the average immigration officer.

Unsurprisingly, Katrina didn't make it to Sao Paulo. Rumours that she consoled herself by going on a shopping spree have yet to be confirmed.