Yesterday evening after the thunderstorm we took a walk around the areas close to the hotel. We went in through the big shopping centre adjoining the hotel to have a look around- there are around 13 floors so I don't think we even covered a 10th of it! We did find the theme park though- it's weird seeing a roller coaster inside a shopping centre. We also found an escape room so we thought we'd try a game. 45 minutes later we were regretting that decision as we hadn't managed to escape- I don't think either of us were too upset though as it's probably one of the worst escape rooms we've ever done! We might try and find a better one to redeem ourselves in before we leave Kuala Lumpur.
We then went out onto the streets nearby for a wander and we passed shopping centre after shopping centre- I don't think we've ever seen so many in one place! We treated ourself to evening desert in one before heading back to the hotel to get an early night before the Formula 1 the next day.
This morning we got up early to make our way to the circuit at Sepang. After a monorail, train and two bus journeys we eventually made it to the circuit just in time for the 1st Practice session. When we arrived it was pouring with rain so we quickly made our way inside to get shelter in the stands. Today was open seating everywhere so we initially sat on the pit straight so that we could see the activity in the garages. The rain meant that there was no running for the first 30 minutes of Practice 1 but eventually the rain eased off and the cars started running. We then went to the other side of the stand where we had good views over quite a bit of the circuit so we watched the remainder of Practice 1 from there.
After the practice session we took a walk around the F1 village area where all the promotional activities and stalls were located. These included a podium jump area where we were able to get photos of us each jumping on the podium- Jason is clearly a more natural winner than Ania!
After a couple of purchases from the Ferrari and McLaren stalls we got some lunch before heading back to the main grandstand in time for 2nd Practice. This time we sat closer to the iconic stand situation at the end of the main grandstand which meant we had good views over most of the circuit. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Grosjean's accident which resulted in 2nd Practice being stopped 10 minutes early. We did get to see the aftermath though where the race officials were inspecting the loose drain cover which caused Grosjean's tyre to explode.
After another wander around we made our way back to the shuttle bus area were we connected to another area where we were to get another bus to the train. Our journey back into town took a grand total of 3 hours thanks to traffic so that put a bit of a dampener onto the end of the day!
Tomorrow it's qualifying and more rain is forecast so hopefully it'll be an exciting session!
