Malaysian GP

April 5, 2010 | Article Posted By - Claudia Everet, London

I opened the envelope at Christmas and I assumed that my favourite Uncle would have been as imaginative as usual and given me a gift voucher from M & S, I double took, no I didn't, I treble took, my heart raced because inside was a fully paid trip to the Malaysian Grand Prix in April with 5 star hotel and chauffeur driven cars all included

 

I have been ticking off the days since the 25^th December reading all about Malaysia, F1 and what I might expect.  I should point out that I am anyway a huge F1 fan but had only to date been to Silverstone waving with thousands of others the union flag.  My favourite driver was Damon Hill, not necessarily the quickest but a great guy who deserved his Championship win. Anyway I digress; my current favourite is Lewis Hamilton.  I know he was a silly boy last year in Australia but I think he is a fundamentally honest and just had a very poor day. (Anyway I have forgiven him).

 

Kuala Lumpur airport is staggering, I had heard that it was as wonderful as Hong Kong, not quite but pretty great. My Uncle, being my Uncle was worried about me travelling by myself so had arranged for a car to pick me up, it felt very celebrity sitting in the back of a Mercedes with darkened windows crawling through the traffic to my hotel, the Mandarin Oriental.

 

I arrived on the Friday not desperately interested in going to practice so hit the stores. Malaysian girls had the figures that you would expect them to have, wonderfully thin and the shops catered for such. As a standard western thin, I was the equivalent of a large beached whale and so quickly decided that maybe souvenirs from the track would be a better way of spending my money.

 

I told my Uncle that I would not venture out late at night alone; however, everyone was so friendly that I decided to adventure a little, KL is a great city but does have great wealth and relative poverty in close proximity but I felt not tensions. The Mandarin Oriental has an incredible view of the Petronos Towers, during the day they are spectacular and at night awe inspiring.  For those of you that know the city well will know that the traffic congestion is an issue, the solution; the hotel arranged a scooter ride to the track, no not me driving but sitting behind - slightly concerned about my driver weaving in and out of the traffic, and even more concerned by the smell of the helmet and the knowledge of the inevitable helmet hair.

 

KL isn't just hot, it is Asian hot, I think humidity must have been 7,000%  and I soon was looking about as good as Roland Rat's sister!!  Fortunately, very fortunately, the heavens opened with what I considered to be a monsoon, but the locals assured me to be a light sprinkling of rain, cooled the air a little and gave me that just out of the shower look.

 

My seat was fabulous, in the grand stand on the start/finish straight. Like a young school girl eager and worried on her first day at school I was in my seat probably and hour and a half too early. As time ticked by to the start of the qualifying my excitement grew as the stadium began to fill up. 

 

I didn't realise at the time that the Ferrari's and the McLaren's were deliberately holding back waiting for better weather; to a complete amateur that rain didn't look to me like it was going to stop but hey ho. It is difficult to judge in qualifying, particulary on the straight, who is the fastest as they all seemed incredibly quick but I had hoped that Lewis would be up front sadly not the case.

 

The spray from the cars must make it almost impossible for any driver caught behind another car. But it didn't seem to slow any of the guys down. I had to telephone my uncle and just hold out the phone so he could just hear the noise, he was laughing as obviously he was watching the race at home so very much has the sound in stereo.  Sound is difficult to describe, loud is not adequate, the thing that strikes one most is how the whole chest cavity vibrates it really is the most exciting thing.

 

I was a little disappointed with the results in qualifying, I know the people perhaps think that a shake up on the grid creates excitement for me a shake up on the grid merely would mean that there would be none completing or rather not enough drivers competing with Sebastian Vettel.

 

I got up incredibly early on race day, a combination jet lag, and childlike excitement.  Lewis starting at the back of the grid about 20 cars behind Webber on pole.  Before the start of the race the crowd of celebrities and the well connected on the starting grid is great to watch, most seem to have dropped the façade of diss interest and are actively engaged.  The cars now stationary are really beautiful, the lines majestic.  Watching the first two races on television I think my favourite car this year is Mercedes and that was confirmed up closer it is just right.  The Ferrari's are obviously lovely and the silver McLaren's menacing, for me the Red Bulls are okay but not really pretty.

 

As the cars went out on the formation lap my nerves built, if Hamilton got off to a good start, who knows, but Vettel is quick and a lot of good drivers in between are no slouches.  Webber arrived at the start line seemingly about 20 or 30 seconds before the last car took its place at the grid. The red lights switching on, 1 2 3 4 5 and then out, the noise as they accelerated away drowned out my scream of exhilaration.  Webber was slow, Vettel super quick but Lewis Hamilton was amazing driving up the inside and overtaking so many cars. I feared he would career into the lesser teams at the first corner, I was surprised there were no crashes, or none that I saw, but lots of cars didn't finish, most surprisingly Fernando & Michael.

 

Other people can describe the race better than me, what I will tell you is that it was amongst the best days of my life, certainly the best sporting event that I have ever seen, and better is some ways than Silverstone  because I was in a crowd who were not F1 aficionados but people who just wanted to watch most of whom understandably were supporting Mercedes because of the tie up with Petronas but they weren't partisan in the same way as often the fans at home are and the track is incredible and the people could not be friendlier.

 

Thank you Uncle, thank you again. I am saving for the Korean Grand Prix I can't imagine how exciting it will be to be at an inaugural F1 race.  If I get it together I will let you all know.

Tags : F1 | Lewis Hamilton | Malaysia

Disclaimer:
Has your comment not appeared? Try waiting a moment and then refresh the page. If it still doesn't appear and you've checked your comment meets the terms of our comment policy then contact Claudia Everet with the details of your comment so we can look into it.

If you wish to complain about a comment please contact the editor directly.