Alonso to pay tribute to plane crash victims

Renault F1 Team driver Fernando Alonso has requested his fellow drivers to join him in paying tribute to the 153 victims who got killed in the plane crash at Madrid yesterday. The Spaniard will wear a black armband and hopes that his 19 colleagues will join him in a minute's silence before heading onto the Valencia track for the first time.

Alonso declared to the press: "I will wear a black armband and I will talk with the drivers tomorrow. Maybe we can do something before starting, maybe one minute's silence in the pit-lane."

Alonso, who had been looking forward to the Valencia GP so eagerly, said that the crash at Madrid has drastically changed the weekend for him.

"It will definitely change the weekend for me, because it's a tragedy what happened. All the Spanish people are in shock and I am too. It's probably the saddest approach to a weekend I have had. Tomorrow we will start slowly to get into the weekend, life continues. But it's a different weekend compared to what it should be."

A three-day national period of mourning has been declared in Spain. King Carlos and his wife will visit the morgue were the victims of the crash were brought for identification. The King and Queen will go there to support the families who are waiting for news of their beloved ones.