After taking advantage of a moment of confusion by a security guard, I spent the day trackside in the infield. Woohoo!
This circuit should definitely provide overtaking, although in the press conference today Ammermuller reckoned it's dirty offline and therefore a mistake by the guy in front might be necessary (anyone spot the irony?). Comments by John Watson about the funneling nature of the first corner are also interesting.
There were surprisingly little incidents today. The only one I saw was the Portugal car stopping near the end of the afternoon session. Someone must have done something early in the rookie session as red flags were briefly out but it was at a different part of the circuit from where I was.
A couple of things were noticeable from trackside. Erik Janis was locking his inside front on every lap when nobody else was, and Narain Karthikeyan has quite a unique cornering style. He almost puts his outside rear wheel off the circuit before turning in, but then at the last minute darts inside and takes a narrow line to the apex.
The funny thing about actually being there is that often you have no idea of what is really going on. I only found out the times when I got back to my hotel and logged on! Hermanto did well today, although I believe he does have experience of the circuit from Asian F3. Erik Janis did an ok job in the rookie session, perhaps now that Enge is back he realises he needs to pull his finger out!
John Martin was again competitive for Australia, while Ian Dyk wasn't...
Also not sure why NZ was a bit off the pace, South Africa had a shocker (Zandvoort specialists it seems?), and Malaysia have not cured their woes either.
Looks like being a very interesting weekend and perhaps it is Ireland's turn to scramble the championship standings.
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