shanghai grand prix 2/2

at about 1pm i went to find my seat which turned out to have a very good view of the circuit. click here (950kb) for a 180-degree view of the grandstand.


the opening ceremony featured dancing cars, hands, tires, acrobats, and a lot of singing.


i couldn't believe it until i used my binoculars, but this singer is none other than jackie chan. click here (3.4mb) to hear it for yourself.


before the start of the race an enormous amount of crew from each team came onto the track to prepare the cars.


missing from the track was michael schumacher who had collided with a minardi during the parade lap, knocking them both off the track. he would start from pit row.


the start of the race was incredible. so much anticipation and the noise... unbelievable. my ears were hurting, the vibration shaking the grandstand around me. to experience it for yourself, turn the volume of your speakers all the way up and click here (5.2mb).


alonso immediately took the lead and held it throughout the race.


it wasn't a good day for ferrari, with schumacher eventually spinning out of the race during a lap behind the safety car. click here (1.9mb) to see a ferrari pass the pits at speed.


ralph schumacher's toyota on the front straight. he eventually would finish third.


during the race a piece of the track came loose. montoya was the unlucky person to collide with the debris, deflating his front-right tire and damaging the right side of his car. click here (4.9mb) to see montoya's pit stop to replace the tire.


alonso took first place and sealed the constructors' championship for renault. click here (4.6mb) to hear the last v10 engine running in formula one.


150,000 fans leave the circuit. there were some finnish fans holding a sign in the middle of the photo that read, 'kimi! illala keitolle?'

anyone here speak finnish?


a last look back at the grandstand.

overall it was a very interesting experience and i'm glad i finally saw a race even though there wasn't much passing taking place on the track.

the cars were so loud that i had to use my ipod headphones to block out some of the noise. as such, i couldn't hear the commentary so didn't always know what was going on- even during incidents it wasn't easy to know where to look.

hopefully next year with the various rule changes the racing will be closer. if so i'll almost certainly go to see the formula one race again. until then there are a few other races that might be interesting, including the a1 grand prix race in shanghai in march.