Just look, don't touch

It's Thursday, sun shines (quite a unique thing in Francorchamps) and suntanned faces of the F1 personnel in the paddock are mostly smiling, while everybody looks fresh and recharged from holiday during the summer break which ends here and today as the next Grand Prix is waiting...

Thursday is usually a quite day for us photographers, giving us time to set everything up and get ready for the weekend. But what do actually the drivers do?

Most of them usually fulfill their duties towards media representatives answering questions at the media sessions and the few chosen by the FIA attend the pre-race press conference. The others again meet fans at the autograph sessions and some even have some PR activities on their brief.

The day on the circuit was getting close to it's end, when I get a phone call telling me that Mark Webber is off with his bicycle riding the circuit. I thought that might be a nice picture of him pushing his bike exhausted up the Eau Rouge (not really).

Leaving the paddock and making me on my way to Eau Rouge I didn't know wether Mark is still riding the track or not, so I just decided to wait....

As I wait Nico Rosberg passes by on his scooter giving me a wave, Sergio Perez with his army of engineers walking the track suddenly stops at the bottom of the hill only to pose for a picture with a "just married" Belgian couple wearing a McLaren shirt (him only) I think the bride was wearing something more civile, at least it looked like a wedding dress to me.

Mark's trainer and a fitness guru Rich passes by running in an amazing rhythm and disappeares on the horizon and I think I just sweat more then him seeing him climbing up that steep hill. Well done Rich...

...and suddenly I see something unusual coming up the old pitlane exit. Surely I can recognize some beautiful female body curves, but still not sure who that would be as being a bit blind already (it's not the age yet I hope). As the "object" comes closer and closer, first I am thinking of is a Sky Sports reporter Natalie Pinkham. Few seconds later that shows to be a wrong prediction as I am quite surprised recognizing clearly it's Jessica Michibata, Jenson's girlfriend.

At the same time as Jessica gives up her run half way through the hill and starts taking pictures with her iphone (oh these twitter addicts...), I see the man I am waiting for is coming down the hill on his bike only to enter the Eau Rouge few seconds later. It only takes Mark another 20-30 seconds to get at the top of the hill, where these two meet.

Knowing each other Mark slows down to say hello and to exchange a few words with his rival's beautiful girlfriend. As he passes by he looks back, while remaining a secret to us, wether this was just a polite gesture to look into Jessica's face while speaking to her, or wether there were some testosterons in game.

Working with Mark since 2007 I can confirm he is a very polite guy (forget his "first-lap nutcase" comments on Grosjean last year). But if not, his physical condition must be pretty brilliant, while leaving a space to normal men instincts at a point where 90% of the male paddock population would rather call an ambulance or a cab to get them back to paddock.

Anyway, I personally thought more about the picture (not really), so I push the "button" and think "well, that might have made a nice picture"...

Back in the press room, giving the memory card to our editor it took me a bit of a persuasion of putting his priority to this Mark-Jessica image than to some portraits of Adrian Sutil he was just working on. Nevertheless he takes it in his hands and in couple of minutes the picture goes viral on the internet...

I stand in the Red Bull Racing garage next morning, just behind Mark's RB9 and trying to get a nice shot of his mechanics, while Mark gets out of his car, takes off his helmet and passing by he shouts in my direction in his aussie way "Nice picture with Jessica maaate!"

"Thanks Mark" I say, both of us not knowing at that point, that after Senna, also he is becoming a cartoon face soon...

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