Wednesday 20 August at 10:16 : Getting a pop-star girlfriend seems to be a growing trend among formula one's top race drivers.

Former double world champion Fernando Alonso is married to Spanish singer Raquel Rosario, and high-profile championship leader Lewis Hamilton is known to be dating Nicole Scherzinger, one of the American pop quintet Pussycat Dolls.

But it doesn't end there. Honda's Jenson Button recently split with his model girlfriend Florence Brudenell-Bruce, and has now been photographed out in London with Kelly Rowland, a successful former member of the highly-popular Destiny's Child girl-group.

Elsewhere, 1998 and 1999 world champion Mika Hakkinen has separated from his ex-wife Erja and is currently holidaying in St Tropez with new girlfriend Marketa Kromotova, a 30-year-old dancer and stripper, according to the Cologne newspaper Express.

"I have an exciting new life with Marketa," retired Hakkinen, 39 - now sporting a tattoo in Chinese characters on his right arm - said.

Meanwhile, proving that friendships within the paddock are possible, reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen - married to former Miss Scandinavia Jenni Dahlman - often organises a game of friendly tennis near his home with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, the Swiss newspaper Blick claims.