British GP Qualifying @ Silverstone

It rained...... a lot.

After the BBC telling people in the public car parks not to attend (approx 20,000 people) and deciding not to go despite getting up early then reading weather reports etc about 1030 I thought I'd just get in the car and go.  Silverstone is around 120 miles from home so after packing up what I was doing and filling up with diesel I arrived there at around 12:55.  Qualifying one starts at 1pm so I was right on time.  I had a little trouble parking although not because it was busy I simply couldn't find the car park.  I asked an attendant who with great efficiency told me where i wanted to be heading.  I then turned into a muddy field and with great rally cross precision guided the car across 2 muddy fields.

Then a couple of other attendants told me the best way to get in to where I needed to go.  We were lucky enough to have been given the tickets which were pretty good ones in an under cover grandstand right by Abbey corner which is the first bend after the pit straight.  

In qualifying round 2 the weather got pretty bad and the session was stopped with just over six minutes to go.  The rain came down for quite a time and the commentator said the weather radar indicated the rain would stop at 14:40....Guess what dead on that time it stopped.  A huge team with brooms and trucks to collect the water appeared and within around 15 minutes the track was much clearer.  The announcer says the session will restart at 1507.  A few minutes before that there's a mighty roar as those who wanted to go out to finish the session start their engines.  A formula one car's engine noise is really loud so imagine 20+ cars on the track flat out.

Q2 finished and then Q3 starts.  It's the final 10 cars battling for places on the starting grid.  Thankfully the rain hold off enough for the session to end immediately after which it starts to pour down and there was a mass exodus to the car parks.  A shame really as there were GP2, GP3 and Porsche cup races still to go however most people probably only go for the big F1 cars.

Got the car out without too much drama in the car park and despite warning there was no traffic jams at all so headed home.  I think if the weather was better I would have stayed longer but the rain and wind got the better of me.