Lewis takes dive for Brazilian Bonanza Banker

As Lewis Hamilton carefully parked his car at the start of the pit lane Bernie Ecclestone wept tears of joy and F1 bosses broke open the champagne (see F1 website above)at the prospects for the cash bonanza that will result from the ultimate showdown in Sao Paulo.

Prior to the race (watching on ITV) you watched the on car video and saw Lewis perform a perfect drive to get pole position , inch perfect , at speeds up to 200 miles per hour - and he can't negotiate a pit bend ?

Ron Dennis and his team with 8 constructors titles under their belt miscalculate ?

This will be the biggest global TV fest ever. Sponsors and advertisers will weep tears at the size of the cheques they have to pay to keep this circus on the road.

Meanwhile the wheels are coming off the Olympic chariot...

In a shocking court case, Marion Jones, then aged 24, was 3 times Gold medallist at Sydney in 2000 in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 400m relay has admitted taking drugs from the BALCO laboratories before and after the Sydney Olympics - she also took Bronze in the Long Jump and 4 x 100m relay . She will automatically be stripped of her Olympic Titles and also her World Chamionship titles for the 100m in 1999 and the 200m in 2001 and asked for the return of over US$1 Mn. prize money .. and technically her relay colleagues wil also lose their medals - Jones had declared assets of less than US$2,000 and is likely to face 3 months in the slammer for financial fraud. her mortgage iona US$1 MN. home was foreclosed last year.

However her career as a drugs cheat started when she was 16. She had faced a four-year ban for failing to show up at a drugs test, but the juiced up media savvy girl avoided any sanction with the assistance of the late Johnnie Cochran, the lawyer best known for successfully representing O J Simpson (The Juice) during his murder trial.

2000 was the only year she obtained any Olympic or world titles - in June 2004 she had a son , by Tim Montgomery who was also caught up in the BALCO scandal so she missed Athens.

In the 100 meters the Gold can be awarded to .. hmmm

Well 2nd behind Jones at 10.75 sc. was the Greek runner Ekaterina Thanou, in 11.12 sec. ho subsequently a 2 year ban and was barred from the 2004 Athens Olympics for evading drug testing. Patrick Arnold the chemist behind Jone's steroid supply was jailed last year for supplying Thanou's coach Christos Tzekos. Thanou atempted to re-loacte to the UK but scrapped her plans because she couldn't find a club that would allow her to join.

3rd was a blameless Jamaican Tanya Lawrence in 11.18 sec. who also won Gold at Athens in the 4 x 100m Jamaican womens team.

4th was Jamaican Merlene Ottey, nandrolone showed up in a drug test in 1999 for her, although the IAAF cleared her to run in 2000... she competed at Athens although she was then 44 years old! She first ran for Jamaica at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

5th was Zhana Block a Ukrainian who was also receiving designer steroids from BALCO. She took Gold from Jones in the 2001 World Championships at Edmonton.

At Athens 4 female runers missed the 100m .Marion Jones who was then being investigated for BALCO links ..but she had had a baby in June. Kelli White - she won the world title in Paris in 2003 but subsequently admitted long-term drugs use and was banned for two years. She had admitted taking tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and erythropoietin (EPO), provided by Victor Conte, head of Balco. Accepting a two-year ban, she said : "I have not only cheated myself, but also my family, friends and sport. I am sorry for the poor choices I have made."

Torri Edwards - the US champion was promoted to the Paris gold medal after White's disqualification - she then failed a test just before the Olympics and was banned.

Anastasiya Kapachinskaya - similarly, a world champion having been promoted from silver in last year's 200m after White's results were erased - she tsted positive in March 2004.

With Torri Edwards ruled out of the American team just before the Olympics , veteran Gail Devers was called into the team at the age of 37 for the 100m.

Roll on Beijing and London...

We won't by the way mention the UK cyclists.