Street parade rocks London

The roads surrounding London's Regent Street were brought to a complete standstill for hours today after F1's much-hyped demonstration run, featuring eight contemporary F1 cars and star drivers such as Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Coulthard and Nigel Mansell, through the capital city, proved overwhelmingly popular.

Droves of race fans, city workers and curious visitors were reported to be ten rows deep on the pavements outside London's high street shops. While people climbed lampposts, hung out of windows and even lined the roofs of buildings trying to get a clear view of the action.

The scenes somewhat belied recent claims from critics that F1's popularity is fading due to Michael Schumacher's dominance of this year's championship and eventually brought proceedings to an early conclusion as the organisers feared for the safety of the crowd.

BMW WilliamsF1 team principle Frank Williams said the event gave F1 a perfect showcase to remind people what the sport was all about. "It will give those who don't normally get the opportunity to see F1 cars an idea of the astounding acceleration and phenomenal stopping power of these cars," he said.

"I fear the noise might be a little overwhelming for some elderly people! The event is quite different and very unusual. I think a lot of people will have had their eyes opened.

"Those of us involved in the sport are all very much aware of the perception [that F1 racing has become boring]. The problem is that the cars are so evenly matched, and because they are so quick, it's not very easy to produce sensible overtaking manoeuvres. But all the teams are trying to come up with a scheme which will improve things for the viewers."

Having started an hour late, again due to organisers needing to get the crowds under control, Nigel Mansell was the first away in a Jordan-Cosworth EJ14. Drivers were asked to remain within the speed limit of 30mph at certain places, where cars were forced to thread their way through narrow plastic-barriered roads, and were told they could reach a maximum of 70mph.

"We'll probably double that," said Mansell in the one of the many pre-event press conferences, "We'll get it up to 140/150mph. We'll probably get into trouble, but don't tell anyone!"

It's unlikely he managed to achieve those kinds of speeds, but observers reported that the cars looked as though they had gone faster than they were supposed to... There was no question that they put on a show.

Mansell blitzed his rear tyres with a spectacular doughnut, while Button and Montoya both pulled off a smoke-inducing burn-outs to the fan's obvious delight. Former F1 driver and ITV commentator Martin Brundle, driving one of this year's Jaguars, got the crowd to count to five before pulling off a racing start, while Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner gave rides in the two-seater Minardi. Toyota's Cristiano da Matta and Ferrari's Luca Badoer were also on display.