A1 GP - Beijing

Charlie and I decided a while ago that we wereg going to go to Beijing to watch the A1 GP (- around about the same time we did not get to go to Shanghai to watch the F1 as it happens!).We thought that if we could not get cheap tickets on the day, we would just do some christmas shopping instead. Sunday started bad as we woke up late, about 10.30a.m, very very hungover. A long taxi drive later we arrived at the entrance to the track.

There were ticket touts everywhere, so we just chose the first one. The tickets had a face value of £100, we offered £6, he said ok. Literally that easy. Tickets in had, off we went, expecting them to be fake and not be allowed to enter. On the way to the track, we had to walk past one of the long straights. Nodobdy was around, so I popped my head through. It was deafening, but unbelievable. I was literally looking onto the track as the cars raced towards me (It was the first sprint race that we missed) :-

Just after taking this photo and video, I was quickly ushered away, unsuprisingly!

The tickets worked like a treat. Through the gate we went without any trouble. There was one main stand, overlooking the pit straight. We had a good 2 hours until the race though. Charlie got chatting to a chinese girl who had a press pass or something. He asked if she could show us the other side of the track, the hospitality side - sure she said! So off we went, the five of us who went, plus the three chinese people who we had met. We think it was a mix of the fact that she had a pass, plus the fact that they were with us, but we were allowed to enter everywhere! We walked straight into the VIP area without any questions being asked at all.

• We walked straight into the pit lane area without any questions;
  
• chatted with the GP team as they fixed the car infront of us;
• lifted what we thought was the winners trophy as we stood next to the podium;
• Drank free drinks and even ate food that was for the VIP's
• Changed a tyre on one of the A1 cars as part of a competition
• Chatted to some of the organisers and those who had to look after all the teams' car parts

It got to the point where we decided we would leave, as we had done everything we wanted to and more, but we wanted to be in the grandstand for the race.

The sounds of the cars was amazing. I have never been to F1 before, so this is as loud as I have ever heard. It was really deafening near to the race track. The Beijing leg of the GP is actually a road race, thus it was posponed for one week due to a problem with the man-hole covers. You could see the markings where the cars normally go when it is not a race weekend. Ths allowed for much action during the race, with quite a few incidents. The Chinese spun out about half way through the race and after the final pitstops, team GB where in fourth place, Italy third, Germany second and Holland first. However, the two leaders crashed into each other, to our huge cheers, which left team GB in second place. We went wild, cheering them on as they went past every lap. They were unable to get ahead of Italy though, so had to settle for second.

When the driver stood on the podium, the five of us cheered as loud as we could, and he definately heard us, we were the only British fans there we think (I may be wrong!).

Overall, it was far better than I could have expected. I think I would have struggled to enjoy myself more at a F1 race, just due to the fact that we would not have been able to do quite what we did at the A1 race. There is another race in Shanghai, next April - so I might well decide to go again.

Here is a quick video I made from the clips I took from the GP. Not exactly Spielberg quality but not too bad:-