Friday at the F1

I'm going to write a "First Timer's Guide to the Barcelona F1" after this weekend, but today, just a couple of photos of life at the track.

Mike and I went to the race today; Karen and Hilda went to markets. I'm betting that Karen will take me to the places she went later, so this is only about what I did today (because she'll never blog...).

On Friday in Barcelona, you can sit anywhere you want. Not really surprising given the lack of attendance. Note the grandstands in the background.

Empty

So we took the advantage of checking out a few between our track entry gate...

Where our gate let us out

...and our seats, including this view from Grandstand I:

Down the start/finish straight

...this one from H:

Quite the corner complex, plus the chicane

...these from G:

Looking left 

Looking right

...from the Pelouse (grassy general admission area) above the back straight:

Looking down towards turn 9 

Looking across to the paddock area

...and the view from Grandstand B, my home for the next 3 days.

A sweeping vista

Today, in addition to the F1 cars, I got to see GP2 cars, which we never see because they never come to Canada. Interestingly, there's a Canadian GP2 driver who is also a test driver for Renault F1 in 2016, Nicholas Latifi.

That Canadian flag and RBC logo were the giveaways

Near our grandstand are 2 heliports, one shut down for the race, but one quite active.

An A-Star?

So in the past, like here and here and here, I posted lots of F1 pictures after the race. Rather than do that, I'm going to try a "user participation game" this year. 

Is there a car/team/driver you like? Post a comment with their name, and I will edit this blog and put up photos of them. Today I shot +300 photos, so I'm sure your driver or team is in there. Like, say, Mr. Alonso...

Cornering

...or Mr. Hamilton.

In a hurry, as usual

Post 'em. I'm here for you.


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By popular demand, Mr. Vettel:

Mr. Hamilton

And Mr. Verstappen.