As I'm sitting at home and watching the third practice session of the US Grand Prix, I sit and I think back on the weekend we experienced with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Race day finally came and my wife, Donna, was finally feeling a bit better after her ordeal with a stomach bug.
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| OUR PRIZE |
Although she was a bit weak, from not being able to eat properly over the past days before the race, she still managed to muster up enough strength to come with me to experience the race.
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| Our seats were right opposite the McLaren Garage |
On Saturday morning I took Donna back to the clinic as a few tests needed to be done. She was a bit dehydrated so naturally the doctor suggested that she stays for a few hours as they were going to put her on a drip for four hours. While she was in the clinic, she got a phone call from the organizer that hosted the competition we won with Johnny Walker. He gladly told her that he was able to arrange for the two of us to meet the McLaren drivers. As she was in the clinic and unable to leave, and I was looking after our son for the day until Donna was well enough to come home, we had to pass on the opportunity. It was an unfortunate situation, but health comes first.
I was a bit surprised that the person that we met who was in charge of the competition, found it funny and was quite surprised that we were not at the race track on the Saturday. All I can say is that this person obviously is not married and does not have any children as he clearly did not understand why we put Donna's health first. Anyway, I was just a bit peeved off at this person as it would have been great to have all the meetings and pit garage visits organised before we were handed our tickets. We would have then been able to plan our weekend properly around it, but this obviously was not the case and I was a bit disappointed that the organizer was totally disorganized!
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| Even the safety car was a blur! |
But, not to spoil an already hectic weekend, Donna finally came home and was able to rest for the rest of the day.
We left home on Sunday afternoon after we collected our son's baby-sitter for the day and we hit the road to Abu Dhabi. We arrived a bit late, but I was not in a hurry as I knew we would make the start of the race.
I was a bit disappointing when we did in fact miss the start of the race as we planned to phone Donna's dad from the grand stands as the cars set off, but we missed this by about 5 minutes, as the traffic around the circuit was quite hectic, and the Abu Dhabi traffic police was also not very helpful, as in my mind, shuttle buses to the circuit should have right of passage before ordinary cars that does not even want to gain access to the race. I think this requires a bit of a re-think for next years race Abu Dhabi traffic police!.
Anyway, so we get to the circuit and we were literally running to get to our seats, but like I said, we just missed the start. At this point, Donna being still weak and tired, was absolutely exhausted and drained. So, we collected ourselves as we heard the cars go roaring past the main grand stands and we entered the entrance to the main grand stand.
As we entered our seating area, I could see that Donna was tired, but also exited at the same time, not her usual excitement but enough to see that she wanted to be there to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity, that she had made happen for us! She did not even sit down properly, and the camera was already out, snapping away pictures. We were fortunate enough to be seated right opposite the McLaren garage, so we could see the pit stops very clearly. It wasn't long before we realized that the start had a bit of a crash, so the safety car was deployed fairly early on.
So the race continued and then Rosburg and Karthikeyan had their crash, which was followed by another safety car period. We particularly liked this as the cars slowed down just enough for us to see them a bit clearer and also to take as many pictures as possible at these slower speeds. Even though the cars were moving slower, the safety car driver, Bernd Meylander, really drives the crap out of the safety car, as he needs to stick to a certain speed so that the F1 cars do not cool down too much.
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| Kimi celebrating his first win of the season |
So, the racing got back underway again, and then Lewis, the driver, with MY name on his helmet, stopped out on the circuit. The official diagnosis was that all power was lost, but I think it was a fuel pickup problem, as Lewis had this issue a few races earlier. But, nonetheless we continued to watch the race. Kimi then led the race, but was continually being caught up by Alonso. He [Alonso] just got faster and faster and faster, but so did Vettel. I only learned later that Vettel started from the Pit lane, so I found it surprising that he was at the back of the field when he initially came past us after we missed the start.
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| Fan zone behind the main grand stand |
But Vettel I think did tremendously well to finish third, therefor he gets my Driver of the Race award. Even with all the safety car period and the replacement of his front wing, he still managed a terrific result. I was a bit disappointed with Lewis's result, but it wasn't his fault. He clearly had the fastest car all weekend, and all his hard work ended up with reliability issues.
The pit stops were amazing. Loud airguns followed by tires squealing off the pit lane to rejoin the race. We then witnessed the fastest pit stop ever recorded. Jenson Button's pit stop was a sub 2.5seconds! A new world record!
So before we knew it, the race was over, but it was a friggen awesome race, probably one of the best races this season and by far the best F1 race at the Yas Mina Circuit ever! After the podium proceedings, where we saw a jubilent Kimi Raikkonan celebrate his first win of the season, and Donna ogling over David Coultard, who interviewed the drivers, [Yes, she has a soft spot for David!] we then headed to the hospitality area where we could eat as much as we wanted as it was all FREE!
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| Podium ceremony |
Donna finally had the courage to eat and drink something. We then headed down to the fan zone behind the main grand stand where we purchased a few items which included Lewis and Jenson official Vodafone McLaren Mercedes caps, a Lewis T-Shirt for my son, a genuine replica of Jenson's 2012 Australian GP winning car and a key ring for Donna's dad of Vettel's helmet. [Yes, my father-in-law, at 76 is a HUGE Vettel fan!] All this cost quite a bit, but hey, it was worth it in the end.
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| She doesn't like Photo's but I'm proud of her |
We will treasure this weekend for a lifetime, and we hope to be in a position again in the near future to go to another F1 race.
Marius van Vuuren
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