MONACO — Lewis Hamilton may be an F-1 star, but he got a bit star struck when he attended the premiere of the latest Indiana Jones film, “The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull,” at the Cannes Film Festival prior to the Grand Prix.
“For me, I thought it was wicked,” he said. “I’ve always been a fan of the films, growing up as a kid.
“Sitting there watching the film, and I realize I’ve Indiana Jones [Harrison Ford] sitting right behind me. Then you’ve Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and it was very surreal. For me, it was one of the coolest things I’ve done.”
Hamilton’s date for the evening was Grenada’s Vivian Burkhardt, who was runner-up in the 2007 Miss World beauty pageant.

• The yacht Le Ponant, used by Grand Prix Tours, is a regular fixture in the Monaco harbor on race weekends. It was back this year after French commandos pulled off a rescue raid to free 30 crew members who had been held hostage on the ship by Somali pirates off the coast of Africa last month.

• Sebastian Vettel was penalized five grid places because his new car had a new gearbox. Drivers must use the same gearbox for four consecutive races, but as Vettel was in Toro Rosso’s new STR3 in Monaco, the gearbox from the old STR2 wasn’t compatible.

• The car manufacturers declined an invitation from the FIA to meet in Monaco on Friday to discuss future engine regulations. They want several weeks to study the various proposals first.
“We want to go to a meeting knowing what the issue is, and being prepared to discuss the issue,” BMW’s Mario Theissen said. “If only one party has an idea and the others don’t know anything about it, and you start discussing before you start thinking, it is not a good approach.”
The six manufacturers all signed a letter to the FIA’s Charlie Whiting asking for the postponement. Left unsaid was the fact that Max Mosley will face the vote of confidence on June 3, and therefore the rescheduled meeting will happen after Mosley’s fate is known.
Recently, the FIA and the manufacturers agreed to freeze all engine development until 2013, but the FIA reportedly now wants to change that to 2011. The manufacturers are reluctant to do this because they have just scaled down their engine departments and are just beginning to see the cost savings.

• Friday’s morning practice session was red flagged for 13 minutes to secure a loose manhole cover on the track.

• After being located at the bottom end of pit lane for the past three races, McLaren was back in fifth place, between Williams and Red Bull in Monaco. The powers that be did not bother to inform the team why it had been moved again.

• Felipe Massa’s pole was only the third for Ferrari at Monaco since Jody Scheckter’s in 1979. Michael Schumacher started on pole in 1996 and 2000. Ferraris have only started from the pole nine times since 1956. The last time a Ferrari driver won the race from pole was in 1979.

• David Coulthard escaped with minor bruises after a high-speed crash in qualifying Saturday. He lost control of his Red Bull and clobbered the barrier exiting the tunnel at about 185 mph. He wasn’t sure if he made a mistake or something broke to trigger the accident. To add insult to injury, he had been fined 2,400 euros [$3,786] for pit-lane speeding earlier in the day, plus he was penalized five grid places [from 10th to 15th] because his car needed a new gearbox. He crashed again in the race.

• Lewis Hamilton is finding that life in tax-haven Switzerland is not all heaven.
“I miss my friends being around,” the British driver said. “I miss coming home and having home cooking, my mum cooking for me, doing my washing and things like that. Catching up with friends, going out, going to London and out to restaurants. I don’t do that anywhere near as much because there is hardly anyone in Geneva I really know.”

• The fire that burned down Mika Hakkinen’s country villa in France destroyed much of his racing memorabilia, including his world championship trophies, other trophies, his helmet collection and more.
He joked that he would have new replica trophies made, including a few for races he never won.

• Bernie Ecclestone told Silverstone’s owners, the British Racing Drivers’ Club, that they will have to pay more if they wish to retain the British Grand Prix in 2010. According to the Daily Mail, Ecclestone says the fee will be 11.1 million pounds [$22 million] in 2010 with a five-percent increase each year.

• Bruno Senna returned the Senna name to the winner’s column in Monaco when he won Friday’s GP2 race.