More pictures of the event can be viewed here…

Thanks to Uncle Wah Sern, I managed to watch F1 up close for the first time on 25 September 2010. I was there with my dad and we were seated on the Padang Grandstand.

At 4.30pm, the race started with Formula BMW Pacific. The Formula BMW cars seem to be moving on a rather slow speed from my view. I expected Richard Bradley to win the Singapore race but he got a slight tap in the bumper and lost a place.

Next was the Porsche Carrera Cup race. Surprisingly, the Porsche Carreras were not so loud as they had silencers. Pole man Christian Menzel made a wrong gamble and slipped down the field as he had put on wet tires.

Right after the Porsche Carrera Cup race, in the background, we could hear the band Daughtry playing.

Finally, the stars appeared – practice round by F1. I did not expect the Formula BMW and F1 cars sounded so loud. Despite the intolerable loud noise, I refused to put on the ear plugs which I brought along as I wanted to experience and enjoy the noise and vibrations. The noise was unbelievable, when a F1 car passes by, the whole grandstand shook under my feet. By comparision, the Williams were the loudest and the HRTs were the quietest. Quite surprisingly, since both cars are using the same cosworth engines. I reckoned that the F1 cars were approximately 5 times louder than the Formula BMW, 1.5 times louder than Porsche Carrera cars and 40 times louder than the normal cars. I was hoping Lewis Hamilton would be on pole but his timing was overshadowed by Fernando Alonso and Sebestain Vettel.

As I watched all the F1 cars passing by one after another, I hope that one day, I would be driving one too.

Jon