Former speed king Niki Lauda has married his girlfriend in a super-fast wedding lasting just four minutes.
The triple Formula 1 champion wed Birgit Wetzinger, 29, at a small ceremony in the Austrian capital Vienna.
Lauda refused to give out details about the ceremony except to confirm that it took place on August 25 and “lasted four minutes”
Niki got divorced in 1991 after a 15-year marriage to wife Marlene.
Since then, he has always stressed in interviews that he would never marry again.
But recently he said: ‘I love Birgit. To me, she is the perfect woman. I want to spend the rest of my life with her.
‘Our relationship is doing perfectly well and I now did what every gentleman has to do.’
He added: ‘I want to protect my private life and not carry it out in detail as Boris Becker does.”
Birgit Wetzinger, 29, donated one of her kidneys after a previous transplant failed three years ago.
After the operation Niki, 59, said: “She is a hero. To show affection to someone is one thing, but to donate an organ is something else entirely. It wasn’t easy to take responsibility for Birgit’s risk. For me it was more difficult than the operation.”
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