Grand Prix Day

For the Grand Prix day itself, I had a walkabout ticket rather than an allocated seat in a grandstand.  Although in theory this allows the flexibility to move around from one vantage point to anther as the race progresses, in practice, once I had managed to secure a standing space in the desirable turn 1 viewing area, there was little point in moving, or indeed the opportunity to do so.

During the race I was listening to the Radio 5 live commentary, which is considerably more informative than the default F1 version.  Only problem is that the commentary is delayed by 1 minute from the video screen feed, which in turn is delayed by about 2 seconds from the live action. So if you see an incident in front of you, it is repeated on the screen shorty after and then you get the analysis somewhat later!

If you saw the race on TV you will recall that it was somewhat dominated by Sebastian Vettel, who was way out in an unchallenged lead for almost the entire race.  Nevertheless,some exciting action for the podium positions towards the end of the race,and overall, a great day out if you are an F1 fan.

The evening's entertainment was Rihanna.  I was not too bothered to join the crowds of twenty somethings heading to the main stage, so I headed off to the Crazy Elephant at Clarke Quay, for some fine blues music.

Singapore Grand Prix 2013

I was in Singapore for their first Grand Prix back in 2009, and since I was in the country anyway for work, I thought it would be fun to repeat the experience this year.

On this occasion, as a fairly late booking, I had no option other than to go for one of the more expensive tickets, which includes the Premier seating in the pit lane / starting grid zone.  I manged to get to the track in time for the P2 session on the Friday and yesterday watched P3 and the qualifying sessions.   It has to be said that you actually get a better idea of what is hapeening from watching F1 on TV, so at the track it is essential to have a view of one of the giant TV screens and to be in earshot of the commentary.  Of course, the added benefit of being there is the atmosphere, i.e. noise, petrol smell, etc.

Included in my ticket was unlimited rides on the Singapore Flyer, a slightly larger version of the London Eye.  So I decided to go for a daytime trip and then another ride when it was dark.  Singapore is certainly spectacular by night, expecially the new Marina Bay Resort area, and hopefully some of my photos can do it justice.

Not only to we get three days of motor racing for our money, but there is an extensive programmeof musical entertainment to fill in the gaps between races, spread over six stages in different parts of the course.  Yesterday I could have taken in Tom Jones or Bob Geldorf for example (no thanks!), but in the end chose to join over 100,000 other racegoers to wach the headlining act of the day - The Killers - who put on a crowd-pleasing show that sent everyone away very happy.

Now we have Race Day to look forward to.