Talk Steer: Tony Dodgins on...

Thursday at Silverstone was the calm before the storm, with some gentle Lewis Hamilton-baiting courtesy of David Coulthard and Jenson Button. Lewis was asked: "At the Reebok launch you were quoted as saying you thought you were fitter than Jenson, is that the case?"

"You've got to believe you're fitter than me and the same the other way," Hamilton said to Button. "I do believe..." Jenson came back. "I've got a triathlon on July 27 if you're interested. We could do it for a charity."

Lewis: "I'm not putting myself into it. I'll probably be doing something else..."

DC stirred it up: "He's throwing down a man challenge; you can't turn down a man challenge!"

So Lewis checked his diary and accepted. For an hour or so the contest was on, until Anthony Hamilton ruled it out, no doubt on the grounds that Lewis, what with Pussycat Dolls and spurious sporting contests, would get too much flak for failing to concentrate on the job in hand.

Mark Webber, the one bloke none of them should take on, had been keeping an eye on some of Jenson's athletic exploits and reckoned that Lewis had probably been saved.

The Donington announcement

All good knockabout fun. The real grenade rolled under the door on Friday morning, just after the first session of free practice. It came in the form of a six-paragraph release from the FIA announcing that, from 2010, the new home of the British Grand Prix will be Donington Park.

Bernie Ecclestone had got fed up. He'd given the Silverstone-owning BRDC (British Racing Drivers' Club) a contract and a deadline of last weekend's race to sign it.

On Thursday the BRDC was still trying to secure government funding for improvements to the infrastructure and the deal, reputed to be circa £11m per annum with a five per cent escalator, remained unsigned. So Mr E went and signed with Donington chief exec Simon Gillett, who just happened to be at Silverstone, on Thursday night.

There was general shock, tinged with disbelief, moving swiftly towards scepticism. There was relief that the British GP has been saved and will not be sacrificed to mega-buck government-backed offers from the Middle and Far East, but doubts over how Donington is going to provide a circuit to the required standard in just 24 months.

We've been here before, of course. The troubled recent history of the British GP dates back to 1999, when Ecclestone told the BRDC that its rate would be doubled to hold the race at Silverstone. The BRDC rejected that, believing Bernie had no alternative. So he immediately did a deal with Brands Hatch chief Nicola Foulston.

It suited Bernie and Foulston perfectly. It got right up the noses of the BRDC, and Nicola added a load of value to a company she had inherited from her father who, ironically, had been killed in a testing accident at Silverstone. Trying to get information on that dark day, she'd been little impressed by the manner in which she felt she'd been treated.

Brands deal falls flat

Along came sports marketing firm Octagon with an offer of £120m for Brands Hatch Leisure. Foulston couldn't believe her luck, cashed in and ran to the bank - a Swiss one - rapidly followed by the ski slopes. The planning approval for the projected changes to Brands never materialised and Bernie made some more money via a non-performance clause in the contract. Octagon then had to pay something like £70m to the BRDC to rent Silverstone, as well as £75m to Ecclestone for the rights to the race.

So, is history about to repeat itself?

Poor old BRDC president Damon Hill had a pop at Bernie about taking too much money out of the sport, but was still managing to maintain his customary dignity and a sense of humour when I spoke to him on race morning.

"I've just done my piece to camera for ITV," he smiled. "They preceded it with a Bernie interview, where he dropped in his usual acid comments like, oh this place is all a bit ancient, then suddenly remembered that Donington was even older and had to go into reverse."

But Damon was taking Donington seriously.

"You have to," he said. "We should be very pleased with the attempts we've made to deliver, but we have to stay within safe limits. If someone is prepared to go beyond those limits, then good luck to them. Mr Gillett was quoted saying that he'd bet the farm. Well, good luck. We've got our farm and we haven't bet it..."

Donington is understood to have bid around £15m per annum, with escalator, and apparently Gillett wanted a 10-year deal to allow him to raise the £100m infrastructure investment via the sale of debentures, a la Wembley and Wimbledon. Whether that works remains to be seen.

Sentiment and business are not good bedfellows, but many thought the timing of the announcement, as Silverstone celebrated 60 years of its Grand Prix and 80 of the BRDC, lacked class. A bit like dumping your girlfriend on her birthday, even if the relationship has been ropey a while.