h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend! It was sooooo good! Our tickets let us sit anywhere on Fri and Sat, and then we were at the first corner on Sunday.

We sat in the pit straight grandstand on Friday for the practise, which was really good because you can see into the pits, so I saw Schumey wandering around and Montoya getting into his car. Very, very cool!

On Saturday we sat at Bridge for the practise and Luffield for the qualis. That was good too cos we saw Schumey spin, but we were booing all the drivers that were on a go-slow round Luffield in the pre-qualis because it's no fun watching them go at 50mph The atmosphere when Button was on his quali lap was amazing - we were all willing him on to get pole but he didn't manage it

Sunday we saw the drivers parade from Bridge, then we sat in the grandstand at Copse for the rest of the day, freezing to death. I had a top, a sweater, a jacket and a mac on and I was still shivering! The race was great though, but we didn't know what was going on for some of the time because we couldn't see any big screens. Radio Silverstone kept us updated when we could hear it over the cars! We could see the pit exit, which was exciting

Before the race on Sunday we were walking to Copse, a scooter with two people on it nearly knocked us down as it made its way through the crowd. I had a good look at the people on it as it was all Toyota livery everywhere, and I recognised the guy on the back. After a bit of thought I remembered his name - Ricardo Zonta. How cool?!

WOW!
*jealous*

We had the non-seated tickets which meant we had to find a spot on the 'grass' but that was cool since we ended up in-between stowe and club on the vale and we could see both corners, a large bit of the luffield complex and a big screen

We did a bit of wandering on the Fri and Sat to decide where we wanted to sit, we were tempted by luffield but the view was better from the Vale and it was a bank rather than concrete steps.

Though to get those 'seats' for the race we had to get there at 6 in the morning, I was there in my new Ferrari tee-shirt with 2 fleeces and a coat over the top and a blanket for a while! It was all worth it though as the race was great.

The historic sports cars afterwards were absolutely gorgeous and I loved the support races and flying displays. After the race we went across the track and into the middle for the concert so we saw the beach boys live and took a closer look at where trulli had his accident. We walked along the track in between Club and bridge and I aquired a rubber 'marble'

I have some great photos but unfortunately I didn't get close enough to Button and Sato on the Saturday to get my cap signed, I was within a couple of metres of them but separated by about 50 people At the aftershow party I spotted a chap taking what looked to be great photos so I cheekily asked him if he could send some to me and gave him my email address, fingers crossed that he remembers and sends me some

All in all the weekend was great, we camped and the weather was good enough to eat outside all the time, so with the money we saved by not eating out each day I was able to justify all the ridiculously expensive merchandise I bought

Mel

We travelled down each day - Friday we left home at 8am and got there about 11-ish, Saturday we left at 7am and got there at about 8.45, and Sunday we left at 7am and were trackside at 10am, which wasn't bad It normally takes about an hour and a half to get there if there's no traffic, so it didn't take much longer.

We didn't go to the party because we wanted to get home at a reasonable time! We videoed the quali and the race though, and watched it all on Sunday night

We left the track at 8:30pm, packed up the tent and were back in Cambridge by 10:30ish so all in all we didn't meet much traffic, there was a bit on the way down on the Friday morning though, we had to queue along the one way system for about an hour.

I couldn't face driving in each day, the petrol would probably have cost more than the campsite for a start!

Mel

We found that the traffic was the worst on Friday, probably cos of the free ticket thing so more people went. Saturday was fine traffic-wise, no problems at all. Sunday we had to queue for a while for the park and ride, but it was a lot better than it's been in the past.

Traffic arrangements were better than usual but because they were doing the 'buy Sunday get Fri and Sat free' offer there were more people who came down for the weekend so there was bound to be more traffic on the Friday as the campsites filled up, however these people had no need to drive anywhere once they were pitched as many sites were within walking distance. This meant that there were more people but less cars on the Sat and Sun.

Well that's how I worked it out anyway!

On another note, no-one had told the locals that there had been a ticket offer so they didn't expect the number of campers that arrived.

Mel