Rainy Race Day in Shanghai..

We woke up to a cloudy day. From our hotel room we could see the tops of the Shanghai Financial center (tallest building in China) and the Oriental Pearl Tower hidden in the clouds. The forecast for the day said slight showers with sunny spells, so we were not too bothered about it. If anything, a light rain would make the race more interesting.

To get to the race track there are shuttles starting from 4 pick up points around the city. All are conveniently located next the subway stations and we picked the one closest to our hotel. 50 RMB gets you to the track and back. I was expecting long queues like back in 2004 but this time there wasn't any, we immediately got on a shuttle bus and were on our way to the track.

There has been a lot written in the media about the grandprix in China and most of it negative. The sport has very little following among the local population here and year after year the turnout at the races keep steadily decreasing. Why bring a sport to a country where there is very little interest for it. I guess its all about marketing.. multinational corporations want more visibility in china which means more sponsorship deals and more money for Bernie, the teams and the FIA chimps. China in turn wants to project itself as a modern vibrant economy and looks to be on the world stage at every opportunity and they pay a lot of money (reportedly some 50m dollars a year!!) to get the rights to host the races. Which in turn means more money for F1 association. So its a win win for everyone, except perhaps the European race fans who have to deal with their favorite local venues slowly shifting to the east, one by one.

I'am not complaining though. Every year the local Chinese, most of whom are unaware of the sport, are lured to the races by action packed promotional videos which show highlights of wheel to wheel racing, cars sliding.. spinning and flying off the track somersaulting over one another. So they buy the tickets.. usually for all 3-days of the race weekend.. go to the track on friday and see the cars just doing their practice runs around the track. None of promised gore and excitement !! Disappointed they head home.. usually throwing out their tickets.. which are then resold by the scalpers to people like me looking for a bargain. Well, atleast that's how i figure the tickets sell for so cheap in the black.

A couple of years back some of my friends managed to get 2500 RMB tickets to the K&H stands for 300RMB each and we were hoping to get the same kind of deal this time. But getting the tickets was not as easy or as cheap as we imagined it to be. After a bit of 'shopping' around and bargaining, we got the tickets to the B stand for 600RMB each. Not much of a deal considering that the 1-day ticket sells for 980RMB.. still better than paying full price. The stand was located at a great spot though.. facing the first corner at the end of the start finish line. The only trouble was that the stands were not covered and it started drizzling already.

We were nervously waiting for the race to start... the previous grandprix in Malaysia was red flagged due to heavy tropical downpour and we were hoping that the same would not happen here in Shanghai. The drizzle was constant and did not look like it would stop.. the only good thing was that it did not look like it'll get worse either. Suddenly a couple of cars came roaring out of the pits for a first hand look at the track conditions. The first time you hear the noise of those engines.. its something special.. and the gear changes go off like little explosions.. DUB.. DUB.. DUBB.. as the cars slowdown and break for the first corner. After a lap or two they went back in.

As expected, the race started behind the safety car. I went down towards edge of the stands to get a closer look..  what a difference a few meters makes !!.. down here seemed to zoom past me in a blur. I had a nice time taking photos of them... i'll pick out a car and start tracking it as it zooms past the start finish line.. closer.. closer and just when it is right in front of me.. slowing down for the curve ahead.. CLICK !!.. Got a few nice panning shots of the cars that day.. but unfortunately most of them were not properly focused.. i did not know what i did wrong that day. Maybe it would've been better to have kept the lens in manual focus mode.

As it happened the last time.. i was too busy taking pictures to actually follow the race. Sebastian Vettel was leading the race.. he is the rising star of the sport and everyone expects him to race for Ferrari next year. And our very own Force India was not doing too bad either.. the Force India car driven by Adrian Sutil was involved in quite a few fights.. it was good to see the car fighting against the likes of McLaren and Renault and actually winning. Sutil looked good for a 6'th place finish, which would give Force India their first ever points in F1.. but with a few laps to go, he suddenly lost control of this car and crashed out. I was disappointed for the team.. but they showed good progress and hopefully will do better in the coming races.

The rain was much heavier when we got back to the city. We had enough time to have a proper dinner (pizza) and boarded the train back to Beijing. Overall its been a hectic trip.. mostly due to our own fault.. but still well worth all the trouble. But i've had enough of Shanghai GP now.. i'll now wait for the Indian GP next year.