Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Prince of Darkness Prevails

Friday - After SOT, I tried to make my way to the Marina Bay Cicruit. Ended up entering through Gate 4. It seems that the screeching of F1 cars is not music to my ears, so I had to go and buy the earplugs. Darren, who received a free ticket from me, and has yet to treat me to lunch/dinner, apparently met up with Shunjie and his friend and managed to sneak into the grandstand. (That lucky *****) I settled for a spot opposite the Esplanade, which is near a giant screen and loudspeaker (to listen to the commentary). Unfortunately, that place was also an entrance to another grandstand, and the ushers kept shoving me out of my spot. ZZZ. Alonso tops the timesheets for Practice 2.

Saturday - Went with my dad. We thought that we could catch the free bus from Kallang to the desired gate. Unfortunately, it stopped at Nicoll Highway, near Gate 1, which my dad and I have no access to. We ended up racing for 2km on the bloody Nicoll Highway, got lost near Marina Sqaure, before finally arriving near the Esplanade. Practice 3 ended by the time we got there. Qualifying was a god damn disaster with Alonso qualifying 15th. Massa is 1st (yawn), Hamilton 2nd (get him off already!), the Iceman 3rd (nice...)

Sunday - There was this procession before the race where the racers sat in some vintage cars and circled round the track. My dad refused to take out the camera coz his hands were dirty. (zzzz) As Hamilton turned by my corner, I jeered at him (as did the guy in front of me.) HAHAHAHAHA. That really made my day. While he's a racing expert no doubt, and definitely "morally' deserves to win at least 2 championships in his career, I'm just hoping that it's not this year.

The entire race was awesome. When I saw that Alonso made only a 3 spot gain in the opening seconds, I thought he was doomed. Good thing that his team decided to get him to pit early. Like Jun Jie, I was also thinking whether Piquet's crash was actually a conspiracy. Well, you can only say that in hindsight, and if you do the actuary tables, it's a terribly risky thing to do. Massa, perhaps he's not fated to win the championship. (But I really hope he does, since I don't want Hamilton to win.) Rosberg could have actually placed first, while Kubica much higher up, if they had planned to do pit stops in the same lap as Alonso. And once the dust is settled, you-know-who took the lead. 37 laps of pure teeth-grinding action, where I was left wondering if the Renault engine would screw up Alonso’s best chance of a win in over a year. Poor Kimi, he had to crash yet again, resulting in his 4th straight race without scoring a single point. In the end, the most deserving driver of all drove home to his 1st win of the season. Ah, money well spent.
Next up, the Fuji Speedway. Last year’s super rainy conditions led to a dramatic turn of events, with Alonso retiring, and giving Hamilton a 12-point edge at the end of the race. How will this year’s Japanese race shake up the race? Only 1.5 weeks left to go.

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