Drivers photo and MS plus RB on the driver parade lap:
More photos to come ... hopefully tonight. Was entertaining last night so ... Sorry about the fences, but not much I can do about that, as they were bloody high and right around the track! ... bloody safety, spoiling our fun Pete
I'm always trying to get tickets as high up as possible. Then use a long lens to get the action back up close.
It would not have mattered, as I tried that, and I also have a 60-300 lens. In fact some of the photos I went to the VERY top of the stand and the fence was still in the way. The fences were SO high that you just could NOT see over them. They have definitely increased their height since I was last at the Melb. GP, I guess this has something to do with the flag marhell dying ... I tried to use focal length to blur them out ... sorry Pete
Grid girl funny on a support race. It seems that somebody cannot count and thus we had 2 too many grid girls ... never mind the track marshalls made up for that which got a laugh
MS's Ferrari on the way to his grid spot, Jaguar pitstop (Webbers) and race presentation as we were leaving:
having also just returned from the GP I tend to agree with a lot that pete said but noted one VERY important thing, even people who knew nothing about F1 racing were able to tell that the Ferraris were way too fats for anything else! I was at turn 10 and it was bleeding obvious by lap 2 !!!!! that it was all over red rover....Alonso was doing ok but it was and easy pace the 2 FErraris were doing and even from that early stage they were just making sure they used enough power to stay ahead of the crowd. There were actually about 3 or 4 separate groups going around the track and it was funny to see the Williams'racing against Webber's barge and not doing very well considering the hype. Interesting sidenote is, I was talking to a couple of the darkside (McLaren) engineers on Friday at a Ferrari shop and they said that the Maccas (engine and chassis) were buggered and so were the Williams' (gearbox problems) but they had no idea what Ferrari was up to as they keep everything secret Seems the problems McLaren had last season is still dragging them down so don't expect anything to come from that side of the galaxy, Darth and his henchmen are stuffed for this year. I hate Montoya but had to admit he is the only possibility to upset the Ferrari camp with the ability to put in a hot lap on ability alone no matter what car he is driving while all the other prima donnas need everything going their way to get a good time. Trouble is he is not consistent enough and suffers red mist syndrome and will often do something very crass with the car, ie jpm=moron BTW pete, the fences were raised to 4.7 metres after that marshall got killed and the event organisers even had the audacity to blank some of the better general admission viewing points with large sections of plywood, bastards! Seeing as this was the first F1 race I've been to where Ferrari won I didn't care if it was boring or not - WE WON yeehaa!! (over 20 races, first Fcar victory) Also, I thought the cars were a bit quieter this year and thought that maybe because of the one engine rule they may not be using the last 500 or 750rpm but the telemetry on the screens around the track showed 19,000rpm on most engines so I must be getting old
Yes that is a very could point, and this will cause the rule makers to panic Yes the Williams did not look anywhere near as fast as the British magazines made them out to be ... bit of egg on their faces me thinks. Yes if the magazines are right, the **** has hit the fan at McLaren ... Yes we were pissed when we went for a track walk lap during one of the practise sessions, very hard to see anything compared to when I went their 5 or 6 years ago. First win for me too ... You are going deaf , I guess using ear plugs does help after all! Pete
You are going deaf , I guess using ear plugs does help after all! Pete having been an idiot that use to sit underneath F-111s calibrating the TIT gauges (turbine inlet temp) while the engines were at full blat for a day does tend to make one deaf Also I remember the turbo days very well and these sissy engines ARE very quiet compared to them and remember as Obi one (or however it was spelt) said to Luca about Darth (err, I mean Dennis), "may the farce be with them" John
