News briefs from Monaco: Saturday 2

(GMM) The conventional wisdom in Monaco on Friday was that there is a greater than 50 per cent chance of rain on both Saturday and Sunday.

Apparently, however, the expert on-site meteorologist Meteo France is telling its client F1 teams that the rain probability is very low for the actual qualifying hour, and only 30 per cent for Sunday's grand prix.

It did not rain at all on Thursday, nor throughout 'day off' Friday.

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Mark Pattinson, one of the Williams mechanics knocked over by debutant Kazuki Nakajima during a pitstop in Brazil last October, returned to the British team's race team here at Monte Carlo.

Since the accident, he had been getting over the injury with a factory-based job at Grove.

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According to the Spanish newspaper Marca, three teams – BMW-Sauber, Toyota and Red Bull – are interested in wooing Fernando Alonso from Renault for the 2009 season.

The vacated seat at BMW would be the one currently occupied by Nick Heidfeld, who it is understood is so desperate to keep his job that he is considering re-hiring his old manager, Werner Heinz, who had a better relationship with the team than his new one, Andre Theuerzeit.