News briefs from Magny Cours: Saturday 2

(GMM) Michael Schumacher gave French football star Zinedine Zidane a high-speed taxi ride around the Magny Cours circuit at noon on Saturday in the striking $2m Ferrari FXX supercar.

–

Free practice on Saturday morning was held up when a strip of artificial grass came loose beside the Magny Cours layout. Officials including FIA race director Charlie Whiting oversaw its repair before the action resumed.

–

Felipe Massa's pole position for the French grand prix is his fourth at the wheel of the F2007 for the season. Robert Kubica, meanwhile, showed that his horror Montreal crash has not slowed him down by driving to a season's best of fourth.

–

Red Bull Racing continue to struggle with appalling reliability from its seamless-shift gearbox. Mark Webber struck trouble on Friday, while David Coulthard will start the French GP a lowly 16th after reporting on the radio during qualifying that his transmission had also broken down.

–

Williams' chief aerodynamicist Loic Bigois will join Honda later in 2007. Team boss Nick Fry told ITV that he is one of several new aerodynamicist on their way to the struggling team. "There's also people from McLaren and BMW," he said.