Second, the race fans. Some are more fun to watch than others.
There's the oppotunity to get "up close and personal" with cars blasting by you at 300 km/hr (a photo I've never figured out how to take), or blasting 140 dB of noise as they accelerate out of corners at 19,000 RPM. You can do that in the corner where I sit. In fact, I typically spend a lot of time at the Friday and Saturday practice sessions "at the wall". My favourite shooting spots look at the cars coming out of Turn 1 and into Turn 2. Like the shots below. First we have Mr. Alonso...
If you click on the photo of Mr. Alonso, look carefully in the foreground and you will see the dreaded "marbles." As they race, little bits of rubber shred off the tires, and collect off race line. Little bits of asphalt do the same. Get into this stuff and it's apparantly like driving on ice -- or marbles. The is the most common complaint of drivers at Montreal. You have to be at the track to see this.
Then we have Mr. Massa...
Christian Albers in his Spyker...
David Coulthard (the first of many DC shots just for Gary...)
Jarno Trulli LEADING Mr. Coulthard (the way it normally is...)
Giancarlo Fisichella in his Renault (for John)
Kimi Raikonnen (note the removal of the logo of his tobacco sponsor. I suspect the bars are actually the bar code of the 20 pack...)
Watch a race on TV and you see the race. See a race at the track and you see the drivers learning the track, and making a mistake or two along the way. That's why I never miss Friday & Saturday practice live. Lewis Hamilton drove a perfect race to win on Sunday, despite being on a dirty track (unlike most F1 facilities, the Canadian track is only used about 3 times a year, so the track's usually a mess) that has never driven on before. So you get to see him screw up on Friday, if you're watching, and your camera is ready.
I won't try to do a lap by lap review of the race. If you want to read one, try this link: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2007/06/10/canadian-grand-prix-2007-review-hamilton-wins-in-canadian-carnage/
Here's a synopsis as I saw it. Lewis Hamilton could do no wrong; Fernando Alonso could do no right. For various reasons, I got no shots of the single most important thing: the start into the first corner. But Alonso got on the outside of Turn 1, and drove across the grass into Turn 2, his first of many grassy visits. In a later lap, he did the same thing. This is what exiting Turn 2 on the grass looks like.
Alonso wasn't the only one to mow the lawn. Mark Weber did it...
,,,and Nico Rosberg tried to pass Jarno and spun them both out through the grass.
Jarno got away OK, but poor Nico was stuck there for quire a while trying to get his car in gear.
Hamilton leaft everyone behind at every opportunity, gaining 0.5 seconds a lap on whomever was in second place (usually Nick Heidfeld, who got a great start and had a great race). The best battle the whole race was for about 20 laps for positions 7-8-9 and 10-11-12. The former was Jarno Trulli leading Vitantonio Liuzzi and Mark Webber...
The latter was Ralf Scumacher battling with Takuma Sato and Mark Weber (after Mark's pit stop).
Sato went on to pass a lot of people in the latter part of the race. First Ralf, then Alonso, whom he got past. There was also a pitched battle for a while between Ralf Schumacher and Christen Albers. Here's Ralf shutting the door on Albers into Turn 1
Late in the race, Jarno had a brain fart and slid into the wall below me coming out of the pits. Afterwards he said his mind wasn't on the race because Robert Kubica's crash occured when Robert hit Jarno's rear wheel. They are friends off the track, too.
The next post will feature the last photos, including podium shots and shots of Robert Kubica's accident site.
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