Bernie Ecclestone had meetings with two key people on the sidelines of the weekend’s Spanish grand prix.
Bild newspaper reports that the F1 chief executive met first with Adrian Sutil.
Force India’s Sutil is engulfed in a scandal that endangers his entire formula one career, with Renault team co-owner Eric Lux threatening to press criminal charges.
Bild said Ecclestone summoned Sutil in Barcelona because he "wanted to hear from Adrian the truth about the nightclub incident".
Sutil was then photographed shaking 80-year-old Ecclestone’s hand.
Also in Barcelona at the weekend was Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, according to British newspapers the Telegraph and Guardian.
He was a guest of McLaren, which is part-owned by a Bahraini state-controlled company, even though the Telegraph’s Tom Cary said the British team "kept their royal visitor under wraps".
It emerges that as Ecclestone admitted in Spain that the 2011 calendar could be extended into December to make room for a rescheduled Bahrain race, the 80-year-old Briton had a "brief chat" with the Crown Prince.