Wow, that sounds epic barra! didnt realise you were there for friday as well, thought the tickets were only for the sat/sun sessions. guess you didnt see much today though lol in terms of car action. No times set in FP2
Sounds great barra, so envious right now. Did you make Bgggeeeerrr bggggeeerr vrrrm vrrrrm and then neiherr neiheeeeer sounds as you walked the pit and then hit the straight? (sorry not too good at spelling F1 pit-limiter and race sounds)
Barra, that sounds like one of those once in a life time experiences.....Fantastic. as chev said, so friggen jealous. Enjoy mate
Sound like your have a ball Barra! while your there you should run around flat out like crazy man with raceonoz.com written on ya back that way you get on TV and maybe go to jail, but we'll get world advertising :lol: good to here from you and hear that your having more fun then a dozen kids in a candy store..
Maybe you can question RBR on why Webber needs a second gearbox change in 3 races, resulting in another penalty haha.....
LOL, harsh snake, that jealousy coming out ??!! Barra, can you organize for webber to get a merc engine and seb to get a mini one? I really want to webber to finish ahead of seb this year.......Bloody gearbox rule........ Should be a great race though......enjoy mate
Damn Webber needed that merc engine with the RB8s low speed lol. First corner crash must've looked horrid from where you were barra, big eff-up from grosjean.
Bloody Grosjean! He gets too amped up at the start of a grand prix, really needs to learn to settle down a bit, stupid mistake, and Kimi, maaaan if that Lotus had some more top end, the way Michael passed him like he wasn't even moving going into Les Combe, ridiculous! And what about Michael defending from Seb then cutting straight across in front of him to enter the pits, f#cking bad manners right there! Schumacher needs to be put in line, it seem's that just because of what he's achieved in the past, he feels he can do whatever he bloody wants, anyway, someone's bound to disagree with me but honestly, he could've very easily caused both cars to retire from the race with that careless manouvre.
That French panel-beater has nothing on Maldonado, faaaaark. I think he was ultimately at fault by jumping the start, I mean it was like going on a date and damaging your duds as your ringing the doorbell, he was that early of the mark!?!?! Then, as he has done a lot this season, he finds the nearest car and lets them borrow his front wing!! The guy needs to head down to the nearest school carnival and stick with the dodgems!!! (Deep breath) Good race to watch though, loads of overtaking and different pit stratagies always mix it up.
Must be so frustrating driving the RB8 and to see cars drive by on the straights. Always last (or near last) through the speed traps.
Apparently his finger "slipped" off the clutch button...yeah right. The RB8 is getting swallowed up by some of the other cars for pace, luckily they have 2 good drivers to carry the slumping performance of the car. I'm not fan of RBR, so couldn't care less if their performance gets worse, but I do feel for Webber a little.
I wouldn't say swallowed up, just their top end speed is horrible. Hopefully they sort it out for Monza cos if they don't, may as well give up hope for a top3, webber had hardly any chance of passing in DRS zone.
Both of them, using DRS and KERS, would catch an opponent on the straight, get side-by-side, then the other car would pull away. 10kph top speed difference apparently. Which is why Vettel was doing the suicide lunge on everyone at the bus-stop, he couldn't get 'em anywhere else. Webber had bad management from his team...again. Did a mention Maldonado???? Finger slipped...up his own a$$!!!
Thanks for the good (?) wishes guys. Had an awesome weekend. Couldnt see the first corner thing from my seat, but there was a screen right in front of me. They wheeled the broken Sauber right in front of us. I did see Raikonnens epic pass on one of the Mercs going into Eau Rouge. Got some awesome photos from on track after the race too. More to come when I get home. My flight leaves about 12hours from now, and I get to Canberra on Wednesday morning
Epic indeed, especially when you consider the driver of that Merc was Schumacher, ballsy indeed Kimi! While watching that pass on the tele I thought to myself, Barra would've seen that one!.... you bastard :lol:
OK guys, Im back, and it's epic lost post time... Thursday Got to my hostel in Aachen at about 11am, plenty of time to dump my stuff and get to the circuit for the pit walk. Access to the circuit was via a 30min train ride (runs every 2hrs), then a local bus from the town of Verviers to Francorchamps, which is less than a kilometre from the La Source hairpin. Arrived to a massive line at the gate to the track. Finally at about 4pm, the gates were opened and the masses flooded across the track and into pit exit. All of the teams had their garages open, with most having parts and cars on display. The drivers all came out to sign autographs, I didnt even bother going to the big end of town, it was 5 deep there. Got signatures from Heikki, Charles Pic and the Torro Rosso drivers. Dan Ricciardo had a massive grin on his face the whole time, like he was genuinely over the moon to be where he is. Seemed like a nice guy, wished him luck and moved on. There were also plenty of GP2 and GP3 cars being towed up and down pit lane from scrutineering. This one nearly got my toes. Also went out and took the obligatory photo down the straight. And to get an idea of the elevation changes, just at that part of the track, this was taken over the outside wall at pit entry. That is Eau Rouge/Radillion that can be seen After a couple of hours wandering about, I decided it was time to head back to Aachen. Got chatting to a Scottish couple at the train station, who I ended up spending most of the weekend hanging out with. It was good to have company, and someone to help work out the cluster that was the bus service to the circuit. Eh, it was only Thursday, surely they will have special buses for the weekend, right? Friday Hmmm... after a bright sunny Thursday, I awoke to traditional Spa weather. Rain. Plenty of it. My plan all along was to walk a full lap of the general admission areas on Friday and Saturday, and take my seat for F1 quali. Happily for me, my new found Scottish friends had same idea. And given how much money had been spent on the tickets, it was happening rain or not. Due to the bus getting caught in traffic we had arrived about half way through practice 1, so saw the end of it from Eau Rouge, and we watched GP2 practice from the Kemmel straight and Les Combs. Lots of cars overshooting. After GP2 practice was done, we went under the track and to the infield, arriving between Rivage and Pouhon. Unfortunately, the 10min walk along the straight leading to Pouhon was straight into the wind, and all three of us went from soggy, but still in good spirits, to 'lets go home'. In my case, my shoes kept my feet dry for an hour and a half, but 10min facing the rain, and I was squelching in my hiking shoes. Not fun. The amount of rain also meant that there was nothing on track. Homeward bound. Did inckude a couple of cheeky beers at the train station though. Highlight of the day was the Shell tent which contained the Ferrari. We barged in to see what was there and to get out of the rain for a couple of minutes. Some official lady appeared and asked for voluteers to have a go at a pit stop. No response, so I stuck my hand up from 5 rows back. Score! Stuffed my camera into the hand of a stunned Scottish lad and charged through the crowd with 2 others to be issued with gloves and saftey goggles. Random guy #1 had the rattle gun, random guy #2 removed the wheel, I put the new one on and random guy #1 put the nut back on. I never in a million years expected a go at something so cool. They gave us about 6 or 7 attempts, and we got our time to a respectable 5.22sec. For the pics-or-it-didnt-happen crowd, here you go Saturday After a rain shortened day on Friday, we elected to start play early on Saturday to make up for lost time, catching the 6.30 train out of Aachen, for a 9am arrival at the track. What a difference a day makes! Made a beeline back to Pouhon, where we gave up on Friday, and watched GP3 quali from there. Also got our first look at the insane lines (and at times below-treeline altitudes) that the helicopter takes. Got all the way back to Blanchimont for F1 practice 3. The general admission are there is a bit rubbish. I attempted photos, but most came out like this... Moved further down, and ended up getting a couple of good shots from the bus stop chicane as they did practice starts at the end of the session Practice over, time to get back around to Eau Rouge to find my seat for qualifying. Happy enough with the outcome There was a TV screen right in front of me too. Disappointed that Webber wasnt strong, and had a gearbox penalty, but still good to watch. Didnt even bother trying to take photos, I was behind the 50m board, where they were doing ~300kmh. Chaos reigned supreme in the GP2 race, with this guy coming to grief on lap 1, before the race was stopped shortly after for the big shunt at the top of the hill, just out of my sight over the hill. With the fight still on with the bus service, I had arrangged to meet the Scots after the GP2 race, and skip the GP3 to ensure we got home. When the red flag came out, I considered leaving to see if they had the same idea, but then a restart time was given for 10min. Escellent, I stay. No, wait, more delays to wait for the medivac chopper to get back to the circuit (the guy is OK). Then they all got out of the cars for a piss break. that, I left, and the others had the same idea. The bus situation had improved, and for the first time all weekend, it was a special bus, not just the regular milk run #395. Back to Verviers OK, more beer while waiting for a train, excited for race day tomorrow Raceday Another early start, charter buses finally running, straight to the seats this time. Again, difficult to get shots of the F1 cars, but got a good look at the drivers parade After the first corner carnage, they were nice enough to parade Perez's car past us and this was about the besxt I could do for F1 shots When the race finished, I was disappointed to see that the drivers werent alowed to do a cool down lap, but I did get to go on track with a few friends... My seat is just to the left of the 4 guys in white shirts And finally, the sunburn on the top of my leg from Saturday and Sunday All up, epic weekend, highly recommended. The bus setup was crap, but I got there and back, I just wasnt able to aprtake in festivities in Francorchamps, which from what I can gather, were good. Apologies again for the huge post, hope you enjoy.
Excellent job Barra! Lucky that the rain stopped I suppose. There is nothing worse than going to a big event like that and getting soaked lol. You got some cool shots in there, very nice. It is really hard take photos of F1 cars as they come past you. I tried at Melbourne between turns 3,4, and 5 with my phone. It was pretty much impossible. The cars weren't even going that fast at the spots I was taking them, but being so close to the cars (only a few meters) makes it difficult.
