hmmm, personally I would say no, as there is one image, and I dont link it will be aligned with the image. best waiting for a couple of opinions first though.
No, I think that's fine. It's a very tasteful picture too if you ask me. The thing about link units is that they need to be clicked at least twice for the publisher to receive payment - first click on the link unit, second click on a sponsored link in the results. After the first click the picture of the castle vanishes anyway.
I've seen this before - did I not recommend reversing the colours on the leaderboard last time. Also remove the leaderboard border. Just my thoughts.