While Lewis’ celebrity status in Britain continues to grow, his popularity in Spain, is not surprisingly quite low. We know this from comments from our Spanish readers! In Spanish magazine, Grand Prix, he got just 1.8% of the votes for driver of the year while Alonso, despite his petulant ways still got 75%. Lewis’ share of the vote probably came from our ex pats in Gibraltar and the Costa del Sol!

On the track, Formula one’s final testing session of 2007 started yesterday, with Nick Heidfield coming out the fastest. Controversially, Michael Schumacher had been set to join yesterday’s test, but Kimi Raikonnen replaced him at the last moment.

Schumacher was scheduled to test with the Ferrari team on Thursday and Friday, he has already showed he had lost none of his competitive edge during two days of testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya last month, posting the fastest lap times on both days. While 38-year-old Schumacher maintains that his decision to retire is “irrevocable”, the tests at Barcelona and Jerez had many F1 pundits hoping for Schumacher’s return, including a very excited Lewis Hamilton.

“Bring it on,” Says Hamilton “I was disappointed that he left [formula one] just as I got there, having watched him for so many years. There’s no doubt Michael is a phenomenal driver and I’d love to race against him.”

With the Spygate fiasco already looming over 2008’s grand prix for Lewis, Michael Schumacher’s return would be a fantastic boost to next years F1 season especially for Lewis Hamilton, and I’m sure would have the world glued to the edge of their collective seats.