Grapevine: News from the Paddock - British GP

Light Relief

Formula One got in the charity spirit on Thursday when Bridgestone and Jordan teamed up for the BBC's Sport Relief event. Officially taking place on Saturday, with 14 one-mile runs around the country, the Grand Prix involvement came in the form of a pitstop challenge at Jordan's headquarters across the road from the Silverstone race track. Five lucky competition winners and one journalist took part in the event but they had to wait for the team's three drivers - Nick Heidfeld, Giorgio Pantano and Timo Glock - to finish having their fun before kicking off the competition.

Invited along to meet the competition winners the drivers were desperate to get a piece of the action so they raced - and beat - their mechanics in a tyre changing competition. "I think the drivers aren't bad," said team boss Eddie Jordan of their efforts. "They are three young guys and they all want to make sure they are quicker than each other. So any sign of competition and they are off!" The event, which will be shown on the BBC's Sport Relief programme on Saturday morning, was a success and Jordan was delighted to be able to continue to give something back to charity.

"It is very easy to get just focussed on your own job in hand, which is the Grand Prix," Jordan added. "But there is a lot of people in sport, Sport Relief, all sorts of charities. This is not just the only thing we are involved in - we have Save the Children for the Bahrain message on the car and also Clic, which is my own charity. I think everyone agrees that what we need to do is to make sure there is in some way an appreciation that hey, we realise we are the lucky ones."

Trulli Rocking

Italian Jarno Trulli prepared for the British Grand Prix in unusual style this week when he attended a Lenny Kravitz rock concert with a friend at Wembley Arena in London. The Oxfordshire-based Renault racer was spotted in the crowd thanks to his 'pineapple' hair cut as he enjoyed the experience of life away from the Formula One fans but his freeness to roam proved, in some way, the current state of the sport - as he is the only man who has beaten World Champion Michael Schumacher this season and could wander around unnoticed. Maybe he hoped the anonymity would help him forget his slip-up in France, where he threw away a podium finish in the penultimate corner, but Kravitz did not help erase the memories by cracking into his smash hit 'It ain't over till it's over'.

Button for England

Jenson Button is likely to have upset his Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish fans this weekend by ditching the Union Jack on his helmet in favour of an all-white design based on the St Georges Cross, the National flag of England, for his home Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Frome-born racer has become his country's latest hope for glory after the football team's failure to capture the top prize in Portugal at Euro 2004 and tennis player Tim Henman's disappointing failure to hit the heights at Wimbledon. Hopes now rest on his young shoulders to beat Michael Schumacher this weekend - so, no pressure then...