ISTANBUL, Turkey — Rubens Barrichello’s Honda carried special “257” logos as he and the team celebrated his 257th Grand Prix weekend. That tops Riccardo Patrese’s record of 256 Grand Prix starts.
“It’s fantastic to have the celebrations here, with all my family and the team,” Barrichello said, “but on the track nothing changes. When I began my career back in 1993, I never thought that I would break this record, but now it really means a great deal to me.”
Some F-1 statisticians say Barrichello needs two more starts after Turkey to break the record, but there is no clear ruling on this.
“There have been lots of discussions,” Barrichello said, “but at the end of the day, I participated in every Grand Prix I attended apart from Imola 1994 when I didn’t qualify after my accident on the Friday. I know I missed two in 2002, when my car died on the grid, but at least the marshals rolled me across the starting line. Those have to count.”
Patrese was sad to lose the record, but said records were meant to be broken.

• Lewis Hamilton can fly. Well, with the help of some cables that is. He went soaring through the air recently while filming a ridiculous publicity stunt of a reenactment of The Siege of Troy for Vodafone.
“I just turned up and got on with what I was told to do,” Hamilton said, “but now I’ve seen the footage and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It’s best if I stick to driving.”

• Mark Webber hopes to renew his contract with Red Bull for 2009. “We are talking,” he said. “I am massively keen to stay here.”

• The FIA has appointed lawyer Anthony Scrivener as an independent expert to undertake a full analysis of the available evidence relating to allegations in News of the World that Max Mosley was involved in “Nazi style” activities. His findings will be made available to the FIA member clubs when they meet to discuss Mosley’s fate June 3.

• The wheel failure that caused Heikki Kovalainen’s accident in Spain was the result of a process fault during manufacture when the outer clamp surface of the wheel was given a clear lacquer coating. As a consequence of this fault, the clamp load that attached the wheel was not to specification. In running, the consequent loss of load caused the wheel to fret and distort, leading to its eventual failure.

• May 8 marked the 26th anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve’s death during qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix.

• Police in Germany foiled a blackmailer who had obtained one of Timo Glock’s computers and threatened to publicize confidential information unless he was paid 10,000 euros [$15,433]. Glock said there was nothing embarrassing on the hard drive, but there was a lot of personal information.

• Ferrari did not use its new slotted nose cone in Turkey because the track does not require a high downforce configuration such as Barcelona where the nose was first raced.

• Now that the Super Aguri team is gone and there are 20 cars rather than 22, five rather than six cars are eliminated in the first and second qualifying knockout sessions. Thus there are still 10 cars in the final Q3 session.

• Officials penalized Giancarlo Fisichella three grid positions for exiting pit lane when the red light was on just before practice started on Friday morning.

• The BMW Sauber team threw a party, complete with chocolate cake, early Saturday morning to celebrate Nick Heidfeld’s 29th birthday.

• Scuderia Toro Rosso has delayed the debut of its new STR3, originally scheduled to appear in Turkey, because of the lack of spare parts following Sebastien Bourdais wrecking one of the cars in testing.

• Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso have criticized the drivers who have refused to join the Grand Prix Drivers Ass’n.
The GPDA’s main function is for the drivers to present a unified voice on safety improvements.
Lewis Hamilton says he is too busy to be a member. Felipe Massa left because he said he didn’t like the way the GPDA was run. Kimi Raikkonen never joined because he couldn’t be bothered. And Adrian Sutil is also not a member.

• The greasy track conditions in practice on Friday caused 26 spins and off-track excursions.

• Lewis Hamilton was squirming around in his seat during the post-qualifying press conference. “I just need the toilet, that’s all!” he said. “And I’m really wondering whether Heikki’s really Finnish because his answers are longer than I’ve ever known!”

• Having lost 13 pounds during the off-season, Robert Kubica has lost 13 more since the Australian Grand Prix. He says his weight loss program is over now and he plans to gain back a couple of pounds.