Day 03 Saturday – Quality Quali
Steering clear of gate 1 and returning to the tried and true gate on the first day, I made my way through with ease. But wait… where am I going to actually spectate within my plebeian peasant GA limits? A lot of the GA areas were along straight sections of the track and if it wasn’t, they’d be on flat ground. Those sections sucked since the F1 cars are so low, you can’t even see much past the barriers — maybe the T-Cams and intake at most.
The majority of the morning was spent trekking along, with some wasted time spent on the inside of the track; just like what war is good for, there was absolutely nothing. Crossing the overarching walkways to return to the outside, the feeling of defeat was starting to sink in. There wasn’t a decent spot… That was until we made it to turns three and four. It wasn’t until the B-series were over did I actually get a proper view of the action. Where I was situated, the cars would be heard coming down the straight, come into view as they braked and entered the corner, then quickly exited out of view by ramping on the accelerator; it was a pretty good spot. Many thousands of photos were taken — 80% of which were unfocused and useless, of course.
Having said that, it wasn’t entirely peaches and rainbows. It was hard to follow the overall event with the coverage display off in the distance at an awkward, neck-breaking angle. The closest toilets were exclusively for the grandstand ticket holders, so I’d lose time walking a kilometre and a half out, then lose even more time waiting for toilets being occupied from five different areas probably. Terrible planning.
Just an onslaught of images from here
I love what the teams have done with their cars this year. Unique interpretations of the regulations and they just look amazing — probably the best they've looked since the introduction of the hybrid era. Is what I would've said if it weren't for them disgustingly ugly wheel covers. Gone are the beautiful O.Z wheels and in were the new BBS eighteen inchers. Mind you, these wheels don't look half bad. Except that they're hidden away by some tacky manhole cover looking thing. They're so gaudy and make the cars look equipped with spare wheels. It's as bad as the time the F1 cars sported those schlong nose cones.
Sooooo uggo
Supercars intermission
Back to the scheduled F1 programming
uuuuuuuuugggggggggoo wheels
Regardless of these shortcomings, I was very pleased that I found a decent spot and couldn’t wait to return for the race. Really heavy with the images in this one, but if you managed to trudge this far, thank you for reading.