Ecclestone returns to F1 paddock

(GMM) After skipping last weekend's German grand prix, Bernie Ecclestone was back in the formula one paddock on Friday.

German news agency SID said F1's 81-year-old chief executive, who earlier denied he skipped Hockenheim for fear of arrest by German police, was seen in the Hungaroring paddock in Budapest early on Friday.

The agency said the access road to the twisty Hungarian grand prix venue has been renamed 'Bernie Avenue', in tribute to the diminutive Briton who took his sport behind the Iron Curtain in the mid-80s.