This is the day! This is what we came here for. Our shuttle ride started at 11 a.m. and the trip took a couple of hours before we reached the Sepang area. The road to the circuit was jam-packed with cars, taxis and buses. On this day, almost all roads lead to Sepang. And with the blistering sun worsening the long queue, other cars had to pull over to cool off while others had to roll down their windows as air-conditioning seems futile. Good thing we had a proud Malay driver giving us insight of the race track, making us more eager to get out of the van and witness the start of the F1 race. We shared the ride with other hotel guests—a German father and son, an Indian couple, and a Filipina with her two sons.
Despite the confusion and uncertainty in our time of arrival, the sight of uniformed fans, who are also stuck in traffic, wearing the dominant red for Ferrari, blue and white for BMW, and yellow and blue for the Renault team sent goosebumps all over my body. It is race day indeed.
Eventually, we arrived at PC3 where we had to take an approximately 100-meter walk to the C3 entrance. Along the way wifey and I sprayed sun block lotion which is a must during this event especially that our ticket is free-seating which makes it more compelling as we’d be under the hot Malaysian sun.
After another hour of waiting and watching some of the pre-race programs, we finally heard the roar and whine of the powerful F1 cars as the pre-warm up lap begins. I was shooting a video and was about to say an introduction, but the excitement of seeing the cars drive by somehow got me emotional and I felt a lump on my throat. I was only able to muster the word ‘Finally!’
As the Star Sports hosts on TV would say, “…the five lights illuminate…the lights are out…the race is on…” the race started with the two Ferraris in the front row. Unfortunately, everything changed so quickly that by the time it passed turn 8 which was on our right, one of the McLarens already started gaining some distance ahead of the two Prancing Horses.
By the middle of the race it became clear who is winning. It was a bit disappointing to see our favorite team trailing behind the two McLarens that at some point I heard my wife shouting and cheering for another team—she turned coat, hahaha. At the end of the 56 laps the race winners are Alonso, Hamilton and Kimi. The McLaren fans held their flags up high, the Ferrari fans down but my wife didn’t care anymore. There’s no point crying over spilled milk.
After all the finishers were done with their victory lap, the crowd at C3 started packing up—sadly, leaving most of their trashes behind. It was also pointless to stay because the awarding ceremony is out of our sight.
We met up with the rest of the Duta Vista guests at PC2. The Indian couple’s the lucky one this time. Their team won and somehow, we had fun reviewing the race while our van crawls its way back to the hotel due to heavy traffic. We arrived at the hotel by past 8 p.m.
Marcus Can Blog 