An early start this morning, it was like getting up for work. I woke at 6ish and had a lie in until 6:30, it's a good job I didn't want longer as they decided to vacuum the hallway outside my room. They also appear to have wired the doorbell into my room, as it couldn’t have been louder. You see you can't just walk into the hotel, you have to ring and wait each time. I guess that's the price to pay for staying in the Green Zone in Little Palestine.
Anyway, that's it for Brussels for a few days, I'm off to the racetrack. I was going to stop by my new hotel on the way but there's no way I'd be able to check in at 9:30am which is when I'd get there. So instead I headed straight there which is much quicker and I'd have been way too early.
My plan therefore was to avoid motorways which turned my 1.5 hour journey into a 3 hour one.
So I stuffed my freshly purchased croissant (which came with a free hand grenade) in my face and hit the road.
The roads were awesome, so much so that I made up 30mins on the satnav. That was until I got to the circuit, I had prepaid parking but it didn't say which of the three thousand lots I was meant to be in. To be fair it wouldn't have helped that much as apart from 1 sign 5km away, there were no other directions. It took 20 mins to find a lot and I've no idea how, considering that the circuit is the only thing here it was pretty poor.
Once in the circuit I was desperate for the loo, these were also badly sign posted and when I did find them, they charged per usage so I made sure I got my money's worth.
I had a look around and then headed into the paddock just as a practice session ended in the hope of bumping into some drivers. As luck would have it, I found Anthony Davidson for the second race in a row, so I got him to sign my Super Aguri cap as that's the team he raced for in F1.
The racing had stopped for a while and some people were allowed in the pit lane to have a look around, no one stopped me so I spend a while poking around and seeing what was what.
I then tried to get into the media centre but someone did object to that so I returned to the pits.
For lunch I ate at the mechanics cafe as although it was the same food I figured it would be cheaper (fat chance). I ordered a cat food burger, but you have to queue again for your fries and then again for a drink. Obviously it was amazing after all that...
For the afternoons racing I walked around the circuit trying to find the best spot, I ended up sat in some woods where there blatantly should be a grandstand but isn't for some reason. As I walked around some fat bloke tried to sneak in through a turnstile by pushing it around the wrong way but got his arm stuck so everyone laughed at him.
Spa (the circuit ) for those that don't know, is massive, one of the longest out there and after walking around in 25c heat all afternoon I was knackered. So I headed back to the paddock and got an ice cream then retired to the main grandstand for the final events of the day which included qualifying for tomorrow's big race.
For some reason, there are no napkins in Belgium, so when you're wearing half your Icecream, isn't ideal. Oh well.
Porsche got first and second so I was happy, Toyota beat Audi too which was surprising. It should be a good race with those three teams quite close in race trim.
It was time to head to the hotel which, avoiding motorways still, was an hour away. More awesome roads and I was there. To say that it was a step above the previous hotel is an understatement. My room is a suite in the loft of a big house in the country. Nice.
After a quick 10mins walk to town I found somewhere that served beer and steak, so have camped out there for a while.
Oh, I appear to have 3rd degree burns from being in the sun all day. # beetroot
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