Australian Grand Prix 2012 - Day 1

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We were a little late waking up but we caught the tram to the F1 track via the CBD to arrive for 9.30am. We collected our tickets from the box office and headed into the event. There was already a long queue forming for the pit lane walk, so we made our way towards the back of the queue and managed to find a couple of stalls giving away free sausage sandwiches, muffins and water, which we happily stocked up with. We also collected our free event merchandise which turned out to be an insulated coffee cup which Jo was very happy with.

The queue for the pit lane walk went down quickly and we were soon following the masses down the pit lanes and taking photos of the teams working away in their garages. After the pit lane walk we had a look at some historic cars and Porsche Carrera Cup cars before heading over to the autograph stage. Will Queued an hour and half to meet Vettel & Webber but when they came on stage they only signed autographs for 5 mins, rather than the 30mins that was scheduled so he didn’t get any autographs. Meanwhile Jo was queuing for the McLaren drivers who came on stage half an hour later but unfortunately we got to the front of the queue just as the drivers had to leave, although we did get signed photos of Lewis and Button from the promotion team.

We decided to drown our frustrated sorrows with a cider in the F1 village before heading to the Paddock club roof terrace to see the end of the fastest car challenge and the Formula Fords. Whilst watching from the paddock club we got a birds eye perspective of the F1 pits whilst observing the spectators being herded along the open pit lane like cattle by the security guards, you could see the frustration rising from a few of the spectators who wanted to stop and take photos.

We walked back to the outside of the track where we took in a beer at the GP Advantage bar whilst watching the Porsche cup qualifying and went to find our seats in the Prost stand where we watched the first round of fastest car, and Classic Australian Touring Car qualifying.

On our way home we bought a couple of programmes before heading out to the tram. We stopped off on our way home to pick up a few goodies to use as picnic food on the weekend days to ensure that we don’t need to leave our seats.

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