Fernando is faster than you…

A middle of the night reminder from a couple of our roommates reminded us why hostels are so cheap, as one English traveller loudly proclaimed, “This is what it means to be English!” as he recalled his drunken exploits of the night. I don’t think we should give them passports. The worst nationality though, it must be said, has been Norwegians. They’ve managed to be the most irritating roommates ever.

Thankfully, our early start today was to check out of the hostel and check our bags into a hotel on the other side of the city as part of our GP Advantage ticket. With free trams running all day, it made it nice and easy, before we headed back for the opening of the gates at 10:30. There was another glorious demonstration of the cars of yesteryear, where you could clearly see the difficult choice every driver was facing: to get the most out of the cars and risk damaging a real piece of history, or play it safe and be forced to watch the braver drivers fly past. As before, the power of a few of the cars was mindblowing, while for others, it was just engineblowing, and at the end of the session, another handful of cars had been towed out by the stewards.

Friday morning also yielded the first race – the Porsche Carrera Cup Challenge, a disappointingly tame affair. I think it was their first race of the season, and so everyone was just gradually easing back into the swing of it. This was livened up soon after by the Blackhawk aerial display,

before the real excitement started! Formula 1 first practice session! 22 of the 24 cars took to the track to show what they could do, while trying to predict whether anyone was showing their true pace. Hispania were the only exception – their car still in pieces in the garage. The noise is immense. You can hear the scream of the engines from anywhere on the track, and as it approaches you, it just suddenly shoots up a notch, deafening you. As it accelerates away, it just seems to get louder, the sound reverberating back to you, until eventually it turns the next corner, and you hear it begin to fade away. I mean, wow. Renault and their mad exhaust system added a real deep growl to their car, an echoing, haunting sound that followed their car like a shadow, while the Lotus sounded as though it had been crossed with a very angry bee.

Ironically, the Lexus Celebrity Challenge followed, where each car did only sound like one slightly annoyed bee. Hybrid, automatic Lexus’s (or Lexuses… Perhaps Lexi?) do not make good racing sounds.

Webber topped the time sheets to cheer the home crowd on another chilly day, before the McLarens took charge in the afternoon practice session. We took a stroll around the track for this session, finding different spots around the circuit to take in the sounds from, to see the rear wing flipping open, to see the cars fight their way around a corner. The main stands are only open to ticket holders, but there are still a few spots around the course where you can see the action.

The day again closed off with the V8 supercars, again not needing to push too hard in this seemingly meaningless race.

Yeah, right. Although not as aggressive as it eventually reached on Sunday, they still took no prisoners, and as light fell, they pushed very hard trying to win.

And finally, I leave you with this snap from outside the Sauber garage. Most teams will only take one spare wing per driver. In some cases, they’ll only take one between them. However, if Kamui Kobayashi is driving for you, you’d better take a few more!