Horner, a man of his word

The team has endured a dismal start to the season as a raft of pre-season problems, particularly with overheating, has left the team chasing both the performance and the reliability of the RB2, and prior to the Monaco GP, they had only two eighth places to show for their huge investment.

The streets of the Principality offered an even tougher challenge as Renault, McLaren and Ferrari were likely to dominate, and therefore team boss Christian Horner saw no threat in voicing his claims that he would jump naked into the outdoor swimming pool located on the Monaco dock should one of his cars finish on the podium.

Coulthard, who had been racy throughout practice on Thursday and Saturday, stormed to the fourth fastest time in the second session of qualifying to book his place in the final session for the first time this season. However, the Scot was blocked by Fisichella on his final qualifying run and had to settle for ninth on the grid.

That starting position would become eighth when the Italian was later penalised for the block, and the Scot would gain yet another place when Michael Schumacher saw his pole position become 22nd, and dead last, following his now famous blocking antics.

So Coulthard would start seventh, still a long way from the podium that would see Horner strip off. However, the retirements of Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli and the penalisation of Rubens Barrichello saw Coulthard rocket from seventh to third with just four laps remaining.

Coulthard held on and was immediately on the radio to his boss: "He did tell me, when I was doing the slowing-down lap, that he would jump in the pool naked so my advice was to give his &lsquowally' a good rub before he did it because if you are to get photographed naked then you want to look as favourable as possible."

Horner, looking back in hindsight, was now regretting saying those famous words. "I stupidly made a throwaway comment that I would jump naked into the pool and it seems that later on, after a few drinks, I might just find myself jumping in there," he said.

The pictures prove that Horner is a man of his word, though we'll forgive him for taking Coulthard's Superman cape that he adorned on the podium.