Fernando Alonso, a man used to wrestling with 800bhp and speeds of over 200mph, had to take things at an altogether different pace on Saturday as he chauffeured newly-wed boss Flavio Briatore and his model bride Elisabetta Gregoraci to their wedding reception in lavish style.

Briatore was united with 28-year-old Gregoraci in Rome on Saturday in a sumptuous ceremony in the 12th-century Santo Spirito in Sassia near the Vatican.

The union was attended by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone along with Benetton group chairman Luciano Benetton and right-wing politician Daniela Santanche, while more than 300 guests also included Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spain’s former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

“I’m as excited as if a Grand Prix race was starting,” Briatore was quoted as saying, according to the Associated Press.

Afterwards, Fernando Alonso – whose rise through the ranks in Formula One was nurtured by Briatore himself – drove the newlyweds to the reception at the Castello di Torcrescenza, an opulent castle residence just north of Rome.

Festivities began on Friday with a dinner at the posh Casina Valadier.

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