Istanbul GP

So the entire itenerary of the post Italy trip was based on attended the Istanbul Grand Prix this last weekend. I have put up with a fornight of struggling against the rigours of touristing just so I could get along to the big race. So on Saturday I was quite excited to point the bus in the direction of Istanbul Park and the big dance.

Istanbul Park is located about 50 kilometres East of the city and due to its relative brandnewness it has excellent access roads, strangly though the course designers decided to make the access road as twisty, and turny as they possibly could, its excellent. Three lanes with perfect freshly laid tar, and as I was arriving nice and early no traffic. Considering the mind state of anyone heading to a racing car race it was an interesting descision by the designers.

Naturally I chucked the Messy back a gear and raced my way towards the track, lots of fun, nothing like 4500 kilo's of racing truck drifting into corners, late breaking- oh it was good fun. Anyways I eventually arrived at the racing car track- free parking, very good, set up the bus for camping and then went down into the track.

The Race Track is brand new so all the facilities are fantastic. The main area is around the big Grand Stand, with lots of food/beer stalls etc, and lots of merchandising, so had some fun thinking of things to buy, almost brought some Spyker kit but eventually thought better. The biggest problem with the set up of the track is that it is divided into small viewing sections, not all connected like a normal race track. That is, each Grand Stand/General Admin section is invidual, you can't walk from one to the other without having to go all the way out to the ring road that goes around the track, the good thing is that there is a bus that takes you from section to section.

So I watched the practice section at Turn 1, which was golden for watching the cars coming out of the pits. Then for the Qualifying Session I headed out to the draw card Turn 8, with its 4 apex's and crazy flat out bravery, it was a very impressive corner. Anyways, I was having a great time, there was a nice breeze blowing, lots of sun light, three fifths of fuck all people, and lots of motor sports. I ran into another problem when I was told by my little Muslim friends that I couldn't take any Alcohol into the General Admin section, but that wasn't that big of a problem. Anyways, QF was good, although Webber couldn't get through section 2. Sitting at Turn 8 was good, as you could really see the differential between those on flying laps (i.e. taking absolute on the edge approach through the corner) and those just cruising, who would be clearly easing off. As the final section came to a close it looked like Kimi was going to grab the pole- he was clearly fastest in sector 2, but then the loud speaker told us that Massa at managed to grab the pole (and Lewis was 2nd) Kimi had fucked it.

My day at the track was finished so I went up to the bus, which was at the top of a hill, allowing me to watch the GP2 race from the comfort of my house. I went for a drive to look for some Wi Fi, but couldn't find any, so went back to the track for some sleeping.

I woke up early the next morning and was very excited to be the first person at the track for the day, little things excite me. Anyways, I faffed my morning away, watching a movie, having a scotch, and watching as the track slowly began to fill up. Around 10 I headed down the hill to the track to get set up for the day. I packed all the essentials, a chair, my beach mat, sun screen, my Australian Flag, and the most important item, a bottle of moonshine (remembering that I couldn't get any alchol in the day before). My moonshine was a scientifically mixed concoction of Ouzo, Scotch, and the secret ingredient Pastsis (this may have been a mistake).

Anyways, I got down to Turn 1, which is where I decided to watch the race for the day. I brought 4 bottles of coke early as I didn't want to have to be walking back and forth to the food place all day. Anyways, I made some friends with some Brits who were sitting near me, and also made friends with my bottle of Moonshine- the day began to go very well...

Saturday had been quite cool, a nice breeze blew all day; Sunday, was the opposite, 35 degrees with no breeze at all, it was hot, very hot. I settled in throughout the day, the GP2 race was fun (timo glock won) and the Porsches were a little boring, finally it was time for the big race.

Anyways, by this time I was getting quite drunk so I have to look at my notes to see what happened in the race. The Ferrari's lead off the start, and Alonso sucked. Webber had a poor start and this was compounded when he was forced out in the 10th lap. The rest of the race was pretty much stock standard with little to no action, that was off course until the end when something bizarre happened, I will switch to my notes for this:

35- Kimi on the charge, 36- He will win it. 40- Kimi pits behind Alonso, 41- Now Hamilton on the charge, 42- Massa and KR 4th and 5th, Bill yells Hamilton will win it. 43- No Hamilton. Oh My God. No Hamilton they swapped him with Alonso- wtf?, 44- Hamilton = Fucked !!, 45- Ron Dennis = Deserves to Die, 46- Ferrari 1/2, Hamilton= Average, My Brit friends are dying. 47- Boo, 48- Boo, 49- Boo Boo, 50 - Mclaren are scum, 51- Hamilton +30 seconds, 53- The Fix is In!

I'm still not 100% sure what happened but something very poor happened to old Hamilton, if it turns out Mclaren cheated I hope they put them in jail. I was very drunken by the end of the race so I stumbled up to the Messy Days and sat around stewing in my anger at what had happened at the end of the race, no Kimi and no Lewis win- was their any point driving 3000 miles? Webber couldn't even get to a pit stop...

Anyways, I had a quick sleep to get over my hangover, and then began the treak West.

(Editors note: I have since learnt that Lewis had a puncture which is why it appeared as if Mclaren had screwed him over... still, I would put the bunch of them in jail)