When the Formula 1 Grand Prix started I was quite excited about the prospect of Lewis either extending his lead or winning the driver's championship in Shanghai. Sadly neither happened.
The F1 circuit in Shanghai is only accessible by road (or air). Transport arrangements didn't compare well to the brilliantly organised Adelaide and Melbourne Grand Prixs that I have been to. There were several free buses to choose from to get to the circuit from Shanghai city and I chose the one leaving from nearest to my city hotel. Sadly though that dropped me off farthest away from the gate I wanted to get to. I had to walk around the outside of half the circuit to get to gate 1 on the first day so that I could exchange my voucher for a ticket. After the exchange I had to walk back to where the bus dropped me off, I thought I'd be able to walk back inside the circuit to see what was there but for some reason part of it was inaccessible(a policeman shouted "ah" "ah" at me while pointing the way I came). Each pick up location has a single drop off location at a specified F1 entrance gate, unfortunately the Shanghai circuit website had no mention of this and I didn't get all the bus information until I had my ticket. Transport on the first day was going to be a pain, I just didn't know until I set off. I could have had a pillion ride on one of the waiting motorcycles that conveniently surrounded the bus door(it was impossible to avoid the motorcycles). Instead of speeding on the back of a motorcycle to my gate of choice for a small fee, I decided to walk since I had lots of time. A couple of bikes followed me some of the way. The riders were constantly asking "want ride". I replied no, the motorcyclist said "want ride". And on it went.
There were surprisingly few seats filled during qualifying in stand E, I could pretty much choose any where I wanted for the first two days. The Shanghai F1 Grand Prix was not very well supported by Chinese people in 2007. Perhaps the reason the food and beer choice was poor is because there were too few people there over the weekend.
When the race started on Sunday 7th October I was anxious for Lewis, I just wanted the worst case scenario to be Lewis getting four or five points. When I noticed Lewis was gradually finding it harder to fend off Raikkonen I wasn't too concerned. The next two or three laps where his car was twitching under him were nerve racking though. He went off on his way into the pits (my stand was nowhere near the pits) so I could only see it on the big screen in front of me, as soon as it happened a number of the people around me jumped up in excitement. My head went into my hands. A Finnish couple were sitting just to my left and the guy was vehemently celebrating Lewis's loss.
That is all I remember. I don't think I will return to the Shanghai Grand Prix, there is no enthusiasm for racing there and the circuit seems to be lifeless.
