Got up and found a full breakfast before heading to the track. A very happy crowd in the metro and the police did a great job with crowd control. We never felt crushed or an issue with people not playing nice.
Got into the stands just in time to finish qualification for the spec 1600 series. Now a brief wait until F1 qualification. We find a place in the shade to rest.
30 minutes to qualification: The crowd is moving to the stands, a few engines start and rev only to be shutdown as the mechanics finish their checks.
Qualifying: Lotus Racing doesn’t make it out of Q1. No matter. Kanga keeps us updated on the split. Q2 gets more exciting as Michael Schumacher struggles and misses Q3 to start 13th. Nadya is happy that Rubens beats both Michael and his teammate, barely missing Q3 to start 11th. She squees when the Videotron shows him leaving the garage to cross to the timing booth, giving a resigned thumbs up to the crowd. Damn these great start/finish seats that keep us well away from the Williams pit halfway down the field!
Q3: Nothing happens. The teams wait. And wait. Suddenly everyone is out. Tires are the theme of the day. Some warm, others don’t. Hamilton sets a fast time, Alonso is 4 seconds off, Vettel is close and Webber is challenging. We lose track of who is on top. The ten minutes of Q3 seem more urgent here than they do on TV. You can see who’s putting cars out, who’s getting ready for a fresh set of tires, and the cars are coming across you at top speed, probably the fastest they’ll go all weekend. Especially for pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton who ran out of fuel half way through his triumphant in-lap and gracefully got out to push the car himself. The crowd roared. A man behind us said, “I don’t like him, but that’s cool.”
With the metal, the sun and the people the stands seem 10 degrees warmer than the 21 Celsius official temp. Next time we’l bring a floppy hat and those neck coolers
We had a late lunch after quali, by a little pond. Nadya’s view on her first poutine: “I like the cheese”
As we left people were working the crowd, trying to buy tickets for tomorrow. Our favorite scalper started with,
“Who’s selling tickets? It’s going to be thunder and lighting tomorrow.” Nice reverse marketing, but if it’s going to be that bad why is he buying?
This post was written by
Jim – who has written 327 posts on UniBrain Trust.
Jim is the curator of UniBrain Motorsports, our resident photographer and the only one in the family to shoot a perfect 25. He enjoys eating Nadya's cooking and tries his best to stay out of her way while in the kitchen.