Fernando Alonso, a man used to wrestling with 800bhp and speeds of over 200mph, had to take things at an altogether different pace on Saturday as he chauffeured newly-wed boss Flavio Briatore and his model bride Elisabetta Gregoraci to their wedding reception in lavish style.
Briatore was united with 28-year-old Gregoraci in Rome on Saturday in a sumptuous ceremony in the 12th-century Santo Spirito in Sassia near the Vatican.
The union was attended by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone along with Benetton group chairman Luciano Benetton and right-wing politician Daniela Santanche, while more than 300 guests also included Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spain’s former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
“I’m as excited as if a Grand Prix race was starting,” Briatore was quoted as saying, according to the Associated Press.
Afterwards, Fernando Alonso whose rise through the ranks in Formula One was nurtured by Briatore himself drove the newlyweds to the reception at the Castello di Torcrescenza, an opulent castle residence just north of Rome.
Festivities began on Friday with a dinner at the posh Casina Valadier.
