F1 drivers beaten by football legends at Monza

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A team of F1 drivers have been beaten 22-10 by a team of Champions League legends at the Italian Grand Prix.

In a five-a-side match put together by Italian Grand Prix sponsor Heineken, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Jolyon Palmer took on a team of football legends on the pit straight at Monza.

The football team included French legends David Trezeguet, Robert Pires and Christian Karembeau, as well as former Spain and Real Madrid defender Michel Salgado and ex-Brazil goalkeeper Dida.

In a match scheduled for 40 minutes, the Champions League legends raced into a commanding lead and were ahead 10-2 at the half-time break, with Verstappen heading home an Alonso cross and Palmer tapping home for the F1 drivers.

A more open second half saw the addition of eight more goals for the F1 drivers - although they conceded 12 with Palmer guilty of palming a cross into his own net - with all five ending up on the scoresheet as Alonso was the creative force behind most of the drivers' good play.

The highlight was a frantic period of play which saw some heroic - if last-ditch- defending from the F1 drivers, which was capped by Alonso lobbing a shot from halfway against the crossbar.

An enthusiastic crowd watched the match from the main grandstand on the Monza pit straight, although they will be hoping all five drivers show a bit more tactical nous behind the wheel during the rest of the race weekend...

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.