Day 107: Grand Prix Practice

The main reason for coming back to KL was of course, the Grand Prix! I haven't been to a Formula 1 Grand Prix since 2005 (and 1999 before that), and Shandos had never been, so we decided it would be something different to try! Today was the first day of a three day race weekend, and would involve some support races and a couple of F1 practice sessions.

We'd looked at the schedule and decided that since there were a few gaps here and there, we'd skip the first F1 practice at 10am, and arrive in time for the second practice at 2pm. So we had a leisurely morning in our apartment (our hosts were both out at work), then set off for the track around 12pm. We weren't sure how long it would take to get out there, although we knew the circuit was next door to the airport which is about 50km from the city centre.

First stop though, was lunch, and we went to a small cafe on the edge of the Nu Sentral shopping centre. The food was decent (I had a chicken & avocado wrap and Shandos had salad), but it took quite a while to arrive as apparently the kitchen was short staffed. So it wasn't until after 1pm that we arrived in the station, bought our 3-day transport ticket and ran downstairs to jump on a train just in time.

The ride out is about 30 minutes, but we then had to get a connecting shuttle bus from the airport to the course (about 20 minutes, even though it's literally 2km away as the crow flies), and then from the carpark drop off point we had to get the circuit shuttle up to the main gate which was about 200 metres or so, and honestly not really worth bothering with.

Straight through security and nobody even glanced at our tickets which seemed odd, until we discovered later that Friday was free entry for everyone, since the practice sessions aren't usually that exciting. All the rigmarole with connecting shuttle buses and so on meant that we didn't arrive at the track until about 2:15pm, when practice had already started.

We headed over to the nearest stand and had a look; Shandos's mouth nearly hit the floor when the first car came flying out of a turn and accelerated! The noise definitely isn't what it used to be, but holy shit those cars move quickly. Accelerating, braking and turning so sharply, it's really something out of this world and has to be seen to be believed.

After watching for a few minutes we decided to find our proper grandstand, as we'd bought tickets for the Tower. Unfortunately for us, we soon discovered that it was at the far end of the main straight, so we had to walk 1300m or so to get there! At least there was interesting stuff along the way, tents with games, promotions, the usual marketing guff and so on. We also stopped a few times to watch the action.

Finally arrived at our "seats" (the stand we're in has unreserved seating), and nearly 90 minutes from leaving lunch to sitting down. At least we'd done a dry run and definitely wouldn't miss anything important!

Enjoyed watching the rest of the session as the cars zoomed around, trying out a few different seating positions as well. It's a unique view, since you're essentially on the apex of a hairpin turn, so cars approach from behind you on the right, slow down from 350kmh to 120, go around the hairpin in front of you, then accelerate off down the main straight. You can also see various other bits of the circuit too, since it's in a natural amphitheatre type thing.

F1 practice finished at 3:30pm, and we relaxed and wandered while they turned the track over for the next support event - a GP2 qualifying session. GP2 is very similar to Formula 1, just less powerful cars and less experienced drivers. The cars don't have the latest F1 eco requirements either, meaning that they're naturally aspirated (not turbo-charged), and rev unbelievably high - up to 18,000 RPM in some cases. As a result, they were much much louder than the F1 cars, and our ears were soon taking a beating as we had no earplugs.

With no particular dog in the fight we decided to call it a day, and started the long trip back to KL. After checking out a few of the displays and stuff at the circuit, we didn't hop on a shuttle until nearly 5pm. And we didn't realise that the circuit shuttle is only one direction, meaning we had to do 90% of a circle to get back to the carpark where our shuttle to the airport train station was waiting. Something to skip for tomorrow.

Not much else to report - we got home without incident and had a quick cheap dinner in the food court inside KL Sentral mall. Arrived back at the apartment just in time to farewell our hosts who are having a weekend away on Malaysia's east coast. They'll be back on Monday night, since it's a long weekend here - start of Islamic New Year celebrations. So in the meantime we've got someone else's large apartment to ourselves!!Read more