F1

What a great day in Shanghai.  The weather was beautiful with nary a cloud in the sky and a temperature in the mid 70’s, almost heaven, west Shanghai!!  This was the setting for the Shanghai and I was there to see my 8^th Grand Prix race in my 7^th country.  As you can tell from the numbers I enjoy the formula 1 races.  When I decided to go to the race, everything seemed perfect.  I was going with a colleague of mine from work who is a racing enthusiast like myself and who has attended 4 of the shanghai races and David a friend we made at the “welcome to the community” meeting shortly after arriving.  But alas a challenge was brewing.  On the day before the race, my colleague backed out and I was told that I had to make a presentation to one of the Yanfeng board members on the morning of the race.  But you probably know me by now and therefore you know that this was not enough to put me off, so I decided to do it on my own (with David).  So after a great presentation from 8-11am on Sunday, I had my driver take us to the Shanghai Grand Prix, after all, if I had to work on Sunday then it was the least the company could do to take me to the race.  And it turned out to be a great plan because I am not sure we would have found the way ourselves.  We turned up 2 hours before race time, bought great tickets and enjoyed checking the place out and searching for souvenirs.

It was nice that David and I were both routing for the same team (McLaren) and the same driver (Hamilton) and we had a great time cheering him on.  After barely making it to the start due to engine trouble; Hamilton struggled for the first few laps and them started moving up on the field.  Our seats were great as we were sitting on the hairpin turn and saw a lot of overtaking action.  Although the stadium was not packed, there was a good crowd of 165,000 people and we were sitting closer to the track than I have ever been.  Needless to say, the sound was deafening even with ear plugs.  With less than 10 laps to go Hamilton passed Vettel to take over the lead and in the end took the checkered flag.  I still enjoy the thrill of the race and the excitement accelerated by the whine of the unmistakable formula 1 engine.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.