The Malaysian GP Mess

I knew it was gonna be an interesting day when it poured down heavily just as I started the car to head on down to Sepang for the 11th Malaysian F1 GP. But the rain was kind of erratic, sekejap ada, sekejap takde.

When I finally reached SIC, the sun was shining brightly, although the parking areas were sort of muddy.

Walking up to the circuit, the atmosphere felt electric, although from newspaper reports, this year’s attendance was down by some 40-60 thousand people. And yes, it's been blamed on the economy as well...

As usual during pre-race, people were mainly buying up merchandise and/or taking photos with scantily-dressed models (who looked like they’d rather be doing something else other than getting groped by the Shreks of the world).

Anyway, although I’m a big Kimi fan, I also came to support the original UK sensation, Jenson Button from Brawn GP and sponsored by Virgin. Hence the T-shirt…

The weather got progressively better and it was as sunny and warm as Sepang could get just before the race.

And when things got underway, the racing was simply excellent as Rosberg, Trulli and Button occupied the top 3 positions. The drivers were not shy to overtake and the crowd was loving every second of it.

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Then the dark clouds started to gather. Goodie, I thought, this should make it even more interesting. And I was actually hoping for the rain to come!

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But when it did, it kinda poured a tad more than I expected, and more importantly, more than what the drivers could endure. And after a few rounds of tyre-changing drama, the race was red-flagged!
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The PA system wasn’t working well so everyone at the grandstand was just looking at each other, trying to figure out what on earth was happening.

People then kept each other entertained by cuci mata-ing and camwhoring to the max. But some 40 minutes later, it was announced that the race would not be re-started and Button was declared the winner.

Some people sighed in disgust while others continued with their camwhoring (probably got the tickets for free). But here’s what I think about the whole thing.

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The parking areas meanwhile were so muddy that I felt I was in the Camel Trophy race.

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But of course I'll be back next year... always get free tickets mah!