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with motor racing, this was now the annual charity fixture of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, attended by everyone who was anyone in Formula One.
    Dressed in black tie, the Quartech party alighted in front of the institution which first put the principality on the map. What greeted them outside the Casino seemed more like a night of film-industry awards than a fund-raiser. Red carpet ran from the kerb to the main entrance. Banks of photographers were corralled down one side, while television cameras and glamorous TV presenters were gushing down the other.
    Once inside, and between the marble columns of the baroque atrium, they were met by the official receiving line and presented to His Serene Highness. Quartano conversed with the Prince and introduced Dr Chen, Nazar and Straker. After a polite but formal welcome, they moved on down the line.
    Quartano then introduced his party to the President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile – FIA – the international governing body of motor sport and the organization that set the “Formula”. Straker thought Bo Mirabelli, the Marquis of San Marino, one of the most patrician and distinguished looking men he had ever met. Mid-sixties with wise, piercing blue eyes, and swept-back hair off his round forehead, he had the appearance of a 1950s Hollywood star. But looks weren’t Bo San Marino’s only appeal. Famed for his charm, he greeted Dr Chen and Straker as if they were long-lost friends, investing their conversation with that rare gift of making it seem the most important moment of the evening.
    After Bo San Marino, Quartano introduced them to the other power axis in motor racing – the boss of the commercial rights holder and, therefore, the controller of the multi-billion-dollars-a-year Formula One revenues. As head of the recently formed Motor Racing Promotions Limited, Joss MacRae was, indirectly, the successor tothe legendary Bernie Ecclestone. By way of a briefing beforehand, Nazar told Straker that MacRae had been a former PR director with two of the teams in the paddock. He had taken over as the Tsar of Formula One, having been lauded for breaking the key Asian markets – India and China – in the early noughties. Nazar was not so generous in crediting MacRae with such achievement. He attributed the breakthrough in Asia to have been more down to necessity – down to Formula One’s desperation at losing the bulk of its revenue from the then impending Europe-wide ban on tobacco advertizing.
    Straker was also told that MacRae had been involved with a Finnish rally driver. Nobody knew he was gay until news broke over the internet, despite – but probably because of – the superinjunction MacRae had taken out in the UK. Straker did not take to him at all. MacRae was all over Dr Chen and Nazar to the point of being obsequious, but there was none of the genuine warmth of San Marino, while, he, Straker – an unknown – was barely acknowledged.
    Twenty minutes later the five hundred guests were invited through into the majestic setting for dinner – the Salon de l’Europe. There, they were surrounded by onyx columns, endless gilding, and were dazzled by the eight – vast – Bohemian crystal chandeliers.
    On the way to their table, the Quartech party encountered the bosses of two other teams. The first was the Earl of Lambourn, owner of Lambourn Grand Prix.
    ‘Dom, my dear fellow,’ said Lambourn to Quartano genuinely. ‘Wonderful to see you.’
    Straker instantly warmed to Lambourn – and detected an authentic friendship between him, Quartano and Nazar.
    Straker had read countless articles on Lord Lambourn over the years. The British press seemed obsessed with him, probably because he was the very last of a dying breed – the dashing, playboy aristocrat – able, through the good luck of birth, to indulge his passion for cars, speed and women. He was tall, slim, with a full head of well-groomed hair and had the easy manner and effortless