Malaysian GP: The Lighter Side, And Kimi's Phuket Place

After a few days back on the road, the Formula One circus arrived in Sepang looking pretty refreshed and relaxed - and generally excited after the barnstorming first race of the season in Australia.

There may not have been the fortnight break between the first two races of years gone past, that allowed everyone to find a beach and cut themselves off from their offices, but everyone at least was able to get a couple of hours in the sunshine of either Melbourne or Kuala Lumpur between events.

Well, all apart from the Daily Telegraph's motor racing correspondent Kevin Garside, who looked by far the palest and tired in the paddock when everyone resumed work on the Thursday before the Sepang race. It was not without good reason though.

Garside had had to fly home on the Sunday night of Australia, arriving back in London on the Monday morning. That evening he beat the cream of national newspaper sports writers to take a British Sports Journalism Award in the 'Specialist Correspondent' category.

It said much for the impact that Formula One is having these days that efforts from the finest boxing, rugby, and football journalists were not good enough for the prestigious prize this year.

And Garside, having accepted his trophy, spent a night in England before getting back on a plane on Tuesday and heading all the way back out to Malaysia.

A few, however, could not help but notice the irony that Garside was willing to travel halfway across the globe to pick up a piece of silverware.

This is the same man who managed to get all confused in the build-up to the season when he turned up for a Williams press breakfast at the team's factory in Grove rather than where it was actually taking place – London.

TIMO GLOCK:
While Garside's travel tale was self-inflicted, one man simply relieved to have been in Malaysia was Toyota's Timo Glock, whose return to F1 has not quite gone exactly as he had hoped.

After walking away from his pretty sizeable accident in Australia, Glock could have been forgiven for thinking that he had used up all his bad luck Down Under. But it was not to be.

Heading to the airport on the Monday afternoon after Melbourne, Glock found that his flight to Sydney had been cancelled. It meant a long wait until the evening for the next scheduled departure – only to finally make it to Sydney to find that his Kuala Lumpur plane had already gone.

He then had to rebook himself onto another Malaysia flight, but that did not depart for several hours.

All in all, it took Glock a whopping 40 hours to get from Melbourne to his hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

And to make matters worse, it was Glock's birthday throughout most of his journey...

KIMI RAIKKONEN:
Kimi Raikkonen had a much better time in Malaysia than he had in Australia – although it probably had something to do with him taking hold of the keys to a new place in neighbouring Thailand.

The Finn, who probably feels more at home in the cold of his birthplace, has just acquired a new £500,000 house on Rawai Beach in Phuket.

Although the demands of the calendar mean it likely he will not be spending that much time in Thailand, he at least has a pretty good excuse to get away from it all after the season finishes in Brazil.

"It will be a nice place to go with my family and friends when I have two weeks off in the winter," said Raikkonen as he took the keys to the apartment at a special press conference.

"It will be good to be in a warmer place, to use some of the toys they have there and to be in such nice scenery."

GP GLAMOUR:
After the glamour in Melbourne of 70's-flavoured rockers KISS, who played to 65,000 race fans immediately after the Grand Prix, it seemed Formula One had moved on a decade in just a week when it arrived in Malaysia.

Sepang is certainly not a match for Monaco in terms of glitz and glamour, but one surprise guest seen lurking with a cup of tea outside the Honda Racing hospitality unit was 80's singer Howard Jones.

Playing on tour nearby with other 80's stars, Paul Young, Limahl, Bananarama and Johnny Hates Jazz, Jones could not miss the opportunity to come and have a peak first hand at F1 in the flesh.

In fact, the paddock was a little bit of a throwback to years gone by in terms of drivers too. With the support race package in Malaysia featuring the Speedcar series, there were some F1 names from the past in full prominence throughout the weekend – including Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert, and JJ Lehto.

And if you looked hard enough in the grandstands, you could also see a certain Satoru Nakajima and his wife. With his son Kazuki Nakajima having scored the first points of his career in Melbourne, Nakajima Sr. wanted to come see his son race in F1 for the first time.

And, with Nakajima Jr. privately hating having his parents hanging around in the pits and paddock while he is working, they were dispatched to the grandstands to watch the on track action from afar.

Formula One waved goodbye to one its stalwarts last weekend when Honda Racing's chief mechanic Alastair Gibson finished his last race.

The South African has taken the unusual step of throwing in the world of F1 to go pursue his other love – art.

Gibson has made a name for himself with his stunning fish sculptures made out of carbon fibre, and now wants to pursue his artist career on a full-time basis.

He is turning his garage at home into a studio and has already made plans for an exhibition at the Chelsea Art Fair in April – with the possibility of further shows in New York, Cape Town and Dubai.

So if you fancy commissioning Gibson to do a piece of art for you, further details can be found at carbonart45.com.

 

Gee, I thought somebody would like to read about some fun topics that do lead to disparaging comments. I guess not.

 

Flavio has a place here, as does Michael Schumacher. When the tsunami hit Phuket a few years ago, Michael stepped up and donated $10 million to the relief fund. Still a record donation for any sports or movie star.