F1 fans pray that Sunday’s race will be this exciting

Before Fernando Alonso underperforms in front of his adoring home fans and Lewis Hamilton manages to mess it up somehow in this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, consider the 1986 race at Jerez. Ayrton Senna beat Nigel Mansell to the finish line by a mere 0.014 seconds, making it the closest F1 finish ever.

Click here for ten reasons why Lewis Hamilton won’t win on Sunday.

The best sports on the telebox this weekend

The chirpy bloggers over at Caught Offside have been running a poll that answers the most important question in the game today: ‘Whose fans do you want to punch in the face?’. Nearly 25,000 have voted, and the clear favourites have emerged as Manchester Utd (26 per cent) and Chelsea (19 per cent). This communal loathing, however, shouldn’t deter most football fans from tuning into Sky Sports 1 at the crack of noon tomorrow to see if the title race can take another twist (we at The Spoiler believe it will, but more on that later). Why not make the game a little more interesting by placing some bets? Get the best odds on the entire interweb right here, folks.

FRIDAY

Snooker
World Championship (BBC2, 7pm)

SATURDAY

Premier League
Chelsea/ Manchester Utd (Sky Sports 1, 12.45pm)

Formula 1
Spain: Qualifying (ITV1, 12.10pm)

Snooker
World Championship (BBC1, 1pm)

Blue Square Premier
Weymouth/ Altrincham (Setanta Sports 1, 5.15pm)

Spanish Grand Prix, Sunday, 1pm, ITV1, bet here

It is very difficult to even think of Formula One at the moment without setting the words “Nazi orgy” pinging around the brain again, but we shall try. This weekend, Lewis Hamilton returns to the site of his own torment, the Barcelona track where a group of Spaniards thought it would be hilarious to black up and pretend to be Hamilton’s “familly” earlier this year. Who knew they even made racist make-up any more? That stuff’s got to be rarer than wig powder and beauty spots - you’ve got to be really serious about your racism to waste the precious blackface on an F1 testing session. And who knows what the combination of a rustic sense of humour and an irresistible desire to attention seek will bring from the spectators this weekend? Surely not a comedy Kamp Kommandant and his pyjama’d slaves. Please god, not that.

More importantly, if you’re looking to venture a few quid on the outcome, chickendinner reckon it’s not going to be Hamilton’s best Sunday. Here’s why…

1. McLaren have won just one of the last seven Spanish Grands Prix - Ferrari have won five.

2. The McLarens have been much slower than the Ferraris in the last two races - Heikki Kovalainen finished 26.789 seconds behind Felipe Massa in Bahrain, that’s their best yet.

3. A British driver

Also appearing on a computer near you…

Brazilian footballer arrested in India for being too rich
[The Offside]

Robospice is joining the Pussycat Dolls
[This Is Extra Time]

Ten predictions for the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix
[Grid Crasher]

Spain won’t be banned from Euro 2008 after all
[Euro 2008 Blog]

Will Alex Ferguson’s son take over at Manchester Utd?
[chickendinner Bet Blog]

Three guesses for which F1 star this beauty queen is married to…

If you are considering a trip to the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, please take this advice: don’t go anywhere near Kimi Räikkönen’s wife. Why, you ask? Well, the frighteningly-handsome octane lovers over at Grid Crasher have discovered that the Scandinavian model brings her pet Alsatian to European race meets. The fierce-looking mutt will be riled up by the deafening screech of Formula One cars, so it’s bound to go postal if you even think about invading her personal space. Unless you like the smell of foreign hospitals, you’d be much better off befriending Bernie Ecclestone’s lovely daughter Tamara.

Also appearing on a computer near you…

Video: A dog gets on the pitch in a Polish game, and the goalkeeper doesn’t seem to want it to leave.
[YouTube]

The dirtiest players of the Premier League 2007/08
[Pies]

David Beckham interviewed on CNN
[The Offside Rules]

The video no Liverpool fan will want to miss
[Liverpool Pies]

Why F1 don’t want Max Mosley in Spain
[Grid Crasher]