Day 109: Grand Prix Race

Last day at the track! Arrived very early today since we were expecting a large crowd and our grandstand has entirely unreserved seating. So we were on the train around 8:30am and in our seats by 10, just in time for the GP3 race.

GP3 is another racing series that's a step down from GP2 (which is a step down from Formula 1). They all have the same owners so they aren't competing, and essentially the talent and money flows upwards from GP3 -> GP2 -> Formula 1. The GP3 race was a bit boring as the front-runners had a good start and never looked like being caught, but the GP2 race was very exciting. Lots of passing moves and shuffling of the pack, with a very close finish. If only I knew who some of the drivers were!

Final support race was a Porsche Cup with a field of 20+ Porsches competing against each other. Amazing how much slower they are than the open-wheel racers, but again it was a fun race to watch which was good. Now we just needed to wait the two hours until the main F1 event at 3pm. The grandstand was steadily filling up, but we could still come and go as we pleased without having to worry too much.

Had chicken shwarma wraps for lunch, and I lined up for 30 minutes to get a couple of beers. I guess since it's a Muslim country, they only had one outlet for alcohol and it was very popular (the crowd at least in the main stands was probably 75% non-Malaysians). Plus the guys serving clearly weren't barmen or anything approaching it. They had five different types of drinks to serve, no proper trays, no limits on purchases (I saw one guy buying 30+ beers that he carried away in a garbage bag), no tills that I could see, and the guys were adding up purchases using a calculator! Go figure. Eventually I got my beers and drank them quickly as it was very hot.

The driver's parade came and went, and before we knew it the cars were on the starting grid. Formation lap away, and then it's lights out - GO! Big crash at the first corner, as Vettel tried to dive into a tiny gap, breaking his front wing and nudging championship leader Rosberg into a spin. Vettel was out, while Rosberg ended up stone last. Ricciardo managed to avoid the chaos to move second behind Hamilton.

More action and pitstops, so the lead shuffled around a bit. But then the big moment came on lap 38, just as Hamilton started running away with the lead - his engine caught fire on the main straight and he rolled to a stop, out of the race! Suddenly Ricciardo was in the lead ahead of his teammate Verstappen, with less than 20 laps to go! It was a nail-biting run to the finish as Verstappen pushed him all the way, but eventually he got the chequered flag for his first race victory in two years - great stuff. All because of us I think!

We shoved our way into an area of the main grandstand opposite the podium where we could watch the presentation, including Ricciardo's trademark celebration - the "shoey". Drinking the winner's champagne out of his sweaty gross racing boot. Pretty bogan, but he is from Perth after all. He even forced the second-placed Verstappen and third-placed Rosberg to drink it, as well as his team boss! Also saw some drunken Australians in the crowd who'd stripped down to their Malaysian flag underwear - we found out later that they were all arrested for public indecency. Australians gunna Australian.

But with smiles on our dials it was time to head back to our apartment in KL. Thankfully the ride back wasn't too bad - we'd been told it can sometimes take three hours due to traffic, but overall it was a slightly quicker run than the previous day. Dinner in the large mall above the station, where we opted for a build-your-own burger place which was quite tasty!Read more