was hast du am Wochenende gemacht?

wow ven. thanks for making this happen..

Today was the first night of what is/was deemed a historic, first ever night race in Formula 1 history. I couldn't help but get sucked in having written a damn article about it 2 months ago haha (i'm not complaining, i actually suggested it to my editor). F1 has been a part of sunday nights at mah crib..but only if it doesnt clash with footie..if it does, half time is dedicated to race watching, and it is the responsibility of the whoever's holding the remote to change back to the race as soon as the match is over- screw the post match analysis! which sucks anyways, with these football channel half fks doing it.




i shan't say much about the fact that there were a tonne of people, of which less than 1 in 10 was Singaporean-i'm serious, this country is going to the expats- nor the fact that it was kinda crazy that they literally shut down the city centre to hold this event. Just like the commentator said, this is the hyde park, the madison square garden of S'pore that they've cordoned off. wow. beautiful weather, didn't see any beautiful people, quite a stunning view- CBD to our right, S'pore Flyer to our left











As we were walking to our gate, Ven and I realised how trippy it is that we support the rival teams/players in literally every sport that's relevant to us, but we're still mates and we still get along. Case in point: Chelsea vs Man United. McLaren Mercedes (i support Lewis Hamilton..the suppoting of mclaren is by extension of that) vs Ferrari. Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic. what else ah ven? have i forgotten anything? Lol :P











Today was for the practice sessions, which is essentially the first time the drivers went all out on the track, having previously only practiced in race simulators (or as the commentator put it, computer games HAHA wahlaoo) or on the street circuit in Valencia which was designed by the same guy who designed the S'pore circuit. But before that started there was the porsche carrera cup practice going on, so on the walk to our gate , past suntec and what not, we got to see souped up carreras screaming around the track. I dont like porsche, so it was quite meh. Aston Martins are love though...the DB9 or the Vantage..now THOSE are sexy cars. I don't like them plastered with sponsor stickers and painted garish colours though, so i didn't care much for the Aston Martin asia cup race earlier in the evening.

But when the mclarens rolled out on track perfectly on time for the 7pm first qulaifying session..wow, the excitment was palpable. People got off their bums and waited for the F1 cars to pass our area at the bay granstand (aka national day parade seating area). We could see them making their way round the track on the screens, and eventually we could hear them over at Raffles Avenue going past the esplanade..the guttural sound of the engine building steadily from the distance, until the car eventually SCREAMED past us in a matter of seconds OH MY GOD IT IS THE MOST GLORIOUS SOUND EVER i'm sure ven would agree!! we were literally GRINNING WIDELY LIKE THIS ^____^ the first hour cos it was such a spine-tingling, internal rush of adrenaline sort of feeling. and yes, it's ear bleedingly loud, so thank goodness for the ear plugs we purchased. The roar of the engines is something you WILL hear whether you like it or not if you are anywhere near town and i suggest you go to town just to hear the sound of it cos its an out of this world feeling.

Hamilton clocked the fastest time (ILU BB!)
The mclarens looked absolutely stunning under the lighting..alienesque, shimmery black and silver skins on the vehicles going at 290km/h down the straights (i'm sure it'll go waaay higher on actual race day)
okok fine, the ferraris were beautiful too haha. We have a lot of ferrari fans in Asia guh. They showed Vijay Mallya (Force India co-owner)at the pit area on the screens! i confused him with a Mittal. I think he's brilliant..he knows how to live it up , the filthy rich blighter he is. Plus he dresses sharply, has shoulder length silver hair and a goatee- *ticks off checklist*.





I just liked the fact that this guy looked like he knew what he was doing, bringing a MASSIVE team ferrari flag to the race. S'poreans don't have that much commitment/that level of fanaticism to do this sorta thing.














If practice session was this exhilirating, RACE DAY IS GONNA BE DA BOMB YA'LL!

if you've never watched F1 before, or if you don't follow F1 but know just bits and pieces about it, i implore you to watch race day on telly on Sunday cos as a Singaporean you need to realise how lucky you are to have this in your country right now :)
just like we don't realise the magnitude of the fact that S'pore in motley crüe's only stop in Asia, or that kanye's people bothered to have us as part of his tour itinerary. I never thought i'd see these days come to pass this early in my life.