Rather excited and full of beans we arrived in Singapore around lunchtime on Saturday via bus from Malaysia. After drawing out some Singapore Dollars from the cash machine the first main task that we had to undertake was finding our way to the hotel where we were to pick up our tickets from. With that task accomplished we made our way to entrance gate number 3 where our Formula 1 adventure began!
Our tickets gave us reserved seats in the Bay Grandstand with a view overlooking the Marina. The track ran along in front of the grandstand and into a tunnel underneath the left hand end of it. However for the first action of the day, a GP2 race, we decided to wander round some of the other areas of the circuit we were allowed into to see what else we could see.
Apart from the 3 days of the year that Formula 1 comes here, these are just normal roads in an incredibly busy city. But with Formula 1 fever gripping the city the organizers have done a spectacular job of crafting an incredible street circuit for the cars to race around. The track is incredibly narrow and boasts 23 turns, a number of which are very tight making overtaking very tough.
After the GP2 cars had finished their race we started to walk in the direction of our seats when our attention was taken by the start of the final F1 practice session. The cars are so much louder than their GP2 counterparts (which are loud enough as they are), and in a number of places here you can be as close as 5-6 meters away from the cars as they are going flat out. Much closer than you will get at any purpose made racing track.
After finally finding our way to our seats during the practice session, it was time for the Porsche Carrera Cup Qualifying to begin. It was now getting dark around the circuit, and the combination of dark surroundings and a brightly lit track made it more difficult to get decent photos from this point onward, but we still managed to get a few.
Following a couple of crashes the Porsche cars had only a few laps at full speed due to the appearance of the safety car, and so we turned our attention to making our way across to the entertainment areas where we had a choice between 2 bands; Bananarama or The Pretenders. The Pretenders won hands down!
Concerts finished it was time to head back to the stands for the main event of the day, the F1 Qualifying Session where we were very happy as McLaren fans to see Lewis Hamilton take pole position!
The final track action of the day was a qualifying session for the Ferrari Challenge race that would take place on Sunday, with the grid being made up of a combination of professional drivers alongside private owners who were invited to take part in the race. The qualifying went without any real drama, and we made our way to the main stage for the evenings finale; Maroon 5 :)
We arrived back at the hotel just after 12.30pm and after what felt like a tiny sleep we were up again and ready for race day! We made our way to the circuit in time to see the first race of the day; the Ferraris that had qualified late the night before. The race had one rather expensive looking accident which was then compounded by a mistake from the marshalls. While hooking the car up to be towed away they forgot to close the driver's door, and as the tow truck pulled away the door of the £170,000 super car was ripped off by the nearby wall!!!
Up next was a sprint race for the GP2 cars that had already raced the day before, and it was another chance to get a few photos of the Formula 1 stars of tomorrow.
While the Porsche cars we competing in their race we decided to walk around the circuit and check out some of the other entertainment that was on offer. You certainly could not find yourself being bored while you were at the circuit as there were constantly bands, dancers and other exhibitions taking place.
8pm struck, and a deathly silence hung over the crowd as the start lights lit up for the final time, and as the lights were extinguished the scream of the engines and the roars of the crowd brought the track to life as Lewis Hamilton lead the pack through the opening series of turns.
All seemed to be going well, Lewis had the pace and the measure of the demanding track with Vettel slowly slipping back behind him until disaster struck. A huge gasp came from the stands as Lewis' gearbox failed as he was changing up to 7th gear, with a faint stream of smoke trailing from the rear of his McLaren. I sat with my head in my hands as I watched his car coast to a halt, my dream finish as broken as his gearbox.
The race went on with Button our only hope for Victory now. But despite several safety cars bunching up the pack he never really had the pace to trouble Vettel who was able to cruise home to victory without too much trouble. The other main talking point was a crash between Michael Schumacher and Jean Erik Verne, which saw car parts scattered across the track.
So with the racing over there was only one thing left to do to cap off our Singapore adventure; back to the main stage to watch Katy Perry!!
This morning (our final in Singapore) we walked back down to the marina area to watch them deconstruct the track and return the city to it's normal state. While we were there we noticed that a certain amount of the track did not have too much happening on it, and was still largely intact. Without anybody there to stop us we decided that an impromptu track walk was in order. We managed to walk past the front of our grandstand and through the tunnel, following the track for around a third of it's distance before we broke off as workmen were busy deconstructing the safety fences. It was a great walk as we could admire all of the tyre marks on the circuit (including Schumachers incredibly long slide into his crash), the marks on the walls where crashes happened, as well as finding many discarded rubber "marbles" that had escaped the sweeping up process.
So that was that and our stay in Singapore has come to an end. On to Indonesia tomorrow morning, and the second to last scheduled country on our UK to OZ adventure!
Our tickets gave us reserved seats in the Bay Grandstand with a view overlooking the Marina. The track ran along in front of the grandstand and into a tunnel underneath the left hand end of it. However for the first action of the day, a GP2 race, we decided to wander round some of the other areas of the circuit we were allowed into to see what else we could see.
A GP2 car rounding the corner onto one of the main straights
Apart from the 3 days of the year that Formula 1 comes here, these are just normal roads in an incredibly busy city. But with Formula 1 fever gripping the city the organizers have done a spectacular job of crafting an incredible street circuit for the cars to race around. The track is incredibly narrow and boasts 23 turns, a number of which are very tight making overtaking very tough.
After the GP2 cars had finished their race we started to walk in the direction of our seats when our attention was taken by the start of the final F1 practice session. The cars are so much louder than their GP2 counterparts (which are loud enough as they are), and in a number of places here you can be as close as 5-6 meters away from the cars as they are going flat out. Much closer than you will get at any purpose made racing track.
Michael Schumacher's Mercedes flies past us just on the other side of the safety fence. Chased down in the background by one of the Lotus cars.
After finally finding our way to our seats during the practice session, it was time for the Porsche Carrera Cup Qualifying to begin. It was now getting dark around the circuit, and the combination of dark surroundings and a brightly lit track made it more difficult to get decent photos from this point onward, but we still managed to get a few.
A Porsche rounds the bend under the floodlights where the day to day street signs are still evident
Following a couple of crashes the Porsche cars had only a few laps at full speed due to the appearance of the safety car, and so we turned our attention to making our way across to the entertainment areas where we had a choice between 2 bands; Bananarama or The Pretenders. The Pretenders won hands down!
Concerts finished it was time to head back to the stands for the main event of the day, the F1 Qualifying Session where we were very happy as McLaren fans to see Lewis Hamilton take pole position!
The final track action of the day was a qualifying session for the Ferrari Challenge race that would take place on Sunday, with the grid being made up of a combination of professional drivers alongside private owners who were invited to take part in the race. The qualifying went without any real drama, and we made our way to the main stage for the evenings finale; Maroon 5 :)
After many failed attempts I finally got a good Ferrari shot at speed from the grandstand
We arrived back at the hotel just after 12.30pm and after what felt like a tiny sleep we were up again and ready for race day! We made our way to the circuit in time to see the first race of the day; the Ferraris that had qualified late the night before. The race had one rather expensive looking accident which was then compounded by a mistake from the marshalls. While hooking the car up to be towed away they forgot to close the driver's door, and as the tow truck pulled away the door of the £170,000 super car was ripped off by the nearby wall!!!
The safety car leads a number of the Ferraris down the straight after the crash
Up next was a sprint race for the GP2 cars that had already raced the day before, and it was another chance to get a few photos of the Formula 1 stars of tomorrow.
A whole host of GP2 cars backed up behind (yes you guessed it) the safety car
While the Porsche cars we competing in their race we decided to walk around the circuit and check out some of the other entertainment that was on offer. You certainly could not find yourself being bored while you were at the circuit as there were constantly bands, dancers and other exhibitions taking place.
This fire dancer caught my attention!
8pm struck, and a deathly silence hung over the crowd as the start lights lit up for the final time, and as the lights were extinguished the scream of the engines and the roars of the crowd brought the track to life as Lewis Hamilton lead the pack through the opening series of turns.
All seemed to be going well, Lewis had the pace and the measure of the demanding track with Vettel slowly slipping back behind him until disaster struck. A huge gasp came from the stands as Lewis' gearbox failed as he was changing up to 7th gear, with a faint stream of smoke trailing from the rear of his McLaren. I sat with my head in my hands as I watched his car coast to a halt, my dream finish as broken as his gearbox.
The race went on with Button our only hope for Victory now. But despite several safety cars bunching up the pack he never really had the pace to trouble Vettel who was able to cruise home to victory without too much trouble. The other main talking point was a crash between Michael Schumacher and Jean Erik Verne, which saw car parts scattered across the track.
Fireworks go off above the marina after the race
So with the racing over there was only one thing left to do to cap off our Singapore adventure; back to the main stage to watch Katy Perry!!
This morning (our final in Singapore) we walked back down to the marina area to watch them deconstruct the track and return the city to it's normal state. While we were there we noticed that a certain amount of the track did not have too much happening on it, and was still largely intact. Without anybody there to stop us we decided that an impromptu track walk was in order. We managed to walk past the front of our grandstand and through the tunnel, following the track for around a third of it's distance before we broke off as workmen were busy deconstructing the safety fences. It was a great walk as we could admire all of the tyre marks on the circuit (including Schumachers incredibly long slide into his crash), the marks on the walls where crashes happened, as well as finding many discarded rubber "marbles" that had escaped the sweeping up process.
On the track in front of our grandstand. We were in the bright blue seats
So that was that and our stay in Singapore has come to an end. On to Indonesia tomorrow morning, and the second to last scheduled country on our UK to OZ adventure!
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