Got back from Silverstone a few hours ago, so I have quite a lot to talk about!
The weather was much worse than I expected. It absolutely poured it down on Friday, and I was in the stands opposing the Paddock, so Kobayashi crashed literally right in front of me in FP1. So he was the first driver I got a proper look at. The rain seemed to time itself very conveniently as it would start raining just before each session, then stop just after!
I was surprised at how different each car sounds. The Williams' and the Renaults made particularly vulgar sounds, the Virgins were much quieter than the others, and noticeably slower exiting the corners, even more so than the HRTs. The strangest ones were the Lotus', they made a particularly deep rumbling sound on downshifts than stood out when all the cars were together and made the grandstands vibrate! They are all also much shinier than they appear on screen.
Saturday was good because the weather had improved a little, but it still rained. The GP2, GP3, and Carrera Cup races all had a fair bit of action in them, so they were nice to see. The GP3 cars all sound like old planes! It was a shame it had to start raining during Q3, that completely took the battle for pole position away, It then stopped about 15 minutes later.
The weather was fine on Sunday, up bright an early at half 6 to get our seats at the Becketts grandstand ('our' refers to me and my 2 best friends). The morning races were all good, I had never noticed how much elevation change there is in the circuit! Looks so much flatter on TV. I could see most of the track from there, except the Start/Finish straight, Copse, Club, Stowe, and Brooklands. It started raining in the middle of the Red Arrows display, which was mostly done behind the grandstand, so I couldn't see it. But it was absolutely soaked at Becketts, so it's no wonder Perez slid into the Pirelli sign on the way to the grid!
The start was amazing, I hadn't actually noticed Vettel take the lead, and the Earplugs mean't that commentary was extremely limited, but the cars are so loud! Buemi stopped in front of us, and I saw Kobayashi retire. People actually started leaving after Button retired and Lewis dropped to fifth not long after. The boos for the mechanic were huge!
It is also interesting to be able to see every car every lap, they were all running in groups, which made it more exciting. Perez pulled off the sole overtake at Becketts, on Schumacher, and in a very impressive fashion too.
The cheers were huge when anybody made a move or defended from one, especially when the McLarens did, it was deafening when Hamilton repassed Massa at the end!
I'm quite pleased with Vettel's performance even though he didn't win, because even if his first pit stop had gone to plan Alonso probably still would have won anyway, and I was furious with Schumacher for sending Kobayashi into a spin!
The drivers were all hysterical at the after party! Certain highlights include: "So, Jenson, bad race today, what happened out there?" "My wheel came off!" and "Kamui, you have always been a very good driver" "Yes."
Overall, a fantastic weekend, definitely going again next year!
