F1 to mourn Spanair victims

FERNANDO ALONSO is hoping to conduct a minute’s silence with his fellow drivers in the wake of Wednesday’s Spanish air disaster.

The country yesterday began a three-day national period of mourning after 153 people were killed at Madrid airport as a Spanair holiday flight attempted a second take-off for Las Palmas in Gran Canaria.

Just 19 passengers and six crew survived Spain’s worst aviation tragedy since 1983, and in the eyes of Alonso, it has cast a shadow over this weekend’s European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Spain’s third largest city is meant to be savouring its debut on the Formula One calendar, but the sense of loss was apparent, with the Spanish flag flying at half mast over the paddock.

Two-time world champion Alonso will today speak with the other 19 drivers at the customary Friday briefing in an attempt to gain support for Formula One to show its own mark of respect.

It is hard to imagine any opposition to the proposal, and providing world governing body, the FIA, give their blessing, it would likely be conducted in the pit lane ahead of qualifying on Saturday, and in front of an expected 110,000 crowd.

If the minute’s silence does take place, it would be the first time since the death of Princess Diana in 1997 that Formula One had mourned anybody’s passing in such a way.

“What happened yesterday sours this weekend for me,” said Renault star Alonso when questioned on the devastating incident.

“It changes the weekend for us (the fans) and for me. What happened was a tragedy. All the Spanish people are shocked, and I am too. It’s probably the saddest approach to a weekend I’ve had.

“We will see tomorrow if we manage to slowly get into the weekend. Obviously life continues, but it’s now a different weekend for me compared to what it should be.

“As a mark of respect I will wear a black armband, and I will talk with the drivers to see if we can do something tomorrow. Maybe one minute’s silence in the pit lane. I hope the drivers would all agree to that.”

Certainly championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa expressed their wholehearted support for Alonso’s suggestion. McLaren ace Hamilton, who holds a five-point lead over Ferrari’s reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen, with Massa a further three adrift, said: “I would definitely look forward to doing that.

“I just want to send out my heartfelt thoughts and best wishes to all the families and all the people in Spain. It’s a tragedy, and I was really sad to hear it happened because we’re in a beautiful country, a beautiful city.

“I just hope it doesn’t stall our weekend, that we are able to move on and do the country proud.”

Massa knows how Alonso is currently feeling as he experienced a similar situation last July when a plane crash landed at Congonhas airport in his home city of Sao Paulo, killing nearly 200.

“Last year we had a similar accident in Brazil, and it was a disaster, so sad,” reflected Massa.

“As Lewis said, I give my 100% support to the (Spanish) people. Although we are here for sport, there are so many important things apart from sport which are the lives of these people.

“It’s a very sad moment, and I think all of us need to do everything we can to help them.”