7.57pm: I am sitting in front of the telly, a laptop on my…well, lap, and an inquisitive mother near me. I could be at the floating platform with the husband now, why oh why did I not buy the tickets with him? Darn.
8.00pm: And they are off!
8.01pm: Oh, the husband just texted, warm-up time. Oops. He knows me so well. Mum and I were just getting really excited.
8.04pm: Go Massa! Go Alonso!
8.06pm: Alonso has moved up three places. Wow!
8.12pm: “The Trulli train” is truly hilarious, the commentators are rather witty (thank heavens it’s not Tay Ping Hui).
8.15pm: Advertising break?!
8.19pm: Mum keeps exclaiming Ah! Ah! everytime a car takes a sharp turn or goes too near the car in front.
8.21pm: It’s so easy to forget that Hamilton is only 23 and that this is only his second F1 outing.
8.29pm: Piquet has crashed! I quite like the safety car, it’s sleek and speedy. Oh buggeration, advertising break again?
8.35pm: The crash apparently happened across from where the husband is sitting. He is understandably stoked.
8.37pm: Massa has pulled off the fuel hose with him at the pit! It’s stuck to the car and three men can’t pull it off. Looks like it’s a Ferrari mistake.
8.45pm: Alonso is actually leading, due to the deployment of the safety car, multiple pit stops and the Ferrari pit stop chaos. Wow.
9.06pm: Poor Massa. His race is ruined through no fault of his.
9.10pm: Kovalainen pits in under 10 seconds. The speed and efficiency is sort of sexy.
9.14pm: Hamilton is stuck behind Coulthard. I’m feeling secretly gleeful.
9.15pm: The commentator just mentioned that the drivers lose up to 4kg of body weight in fluids due to the high temperature (29 degrees Celsius) and humidity (73 percent).
9.20pm: It’s bizarre to see Alonso’s car zoom by while a SBS double decker cruises leisurely on a bridge above it.
9.23pm: Darn. Good control from Hamilton sees him overtaking Coulthard.
9.36pm: The race is Alonso’s to lose. And Raikkonen has clawed his way back to third, only to pit and fall back down to fifth.
9.40pm: Safety car is out again! Force India has crashed.
9.44pm: Nine laps to go. Safety car is in this lap. I hate advertising breaks.
9.54pm: Raikkonen has crashed! This means that Ferrari does not get a point. It’s not the Scuderia’s day. Or night.
9.58pm: Two laps to go. This track is really Alonso’s, judging by how he had owned it during the practice rounds and now.
10.00pm: Alonso takes the chequered flag! It’s his first since the Australian GP last year, first of the season. And Alonso’s taking a victory lap now, with his fist pumped up in front of him. Well done!
I am so going to the race next year.
Yannisms 