With all of the F-1 pre-show pomp and pagentry out of the way, it was time for the signature event. Formula one cars began coming out of the pits for a lap, ending in assigned positions on the grid. Activity soon became quite intense on the grid, with teams performing their last checks on the cars.
With only a few minutes to go, tire warmers were pulled off of the cars and the hundreds of personnel and their gear soon vanished, leaving only the cars. One by one, the cars slowly drove past, doing one final slow-speed run around the circuit before returning to their assigned spots on the starting grid. Five red lights above the start/finish line were all that remained before the start of the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix.
From our perfect vantage point, we watched as the five red lights held for a moment longer, then went out all at once. The cars surged forward, relatively silently for us from our distant viewpoint. With the phenomenal acceleration of which F1 cars are capable, they leapt towards us in an angry rush.
The two Mercedes of Hamilton and Rosberg maintained their one-two position going into turns one and two, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikonnen taking a peek but not able to make it around Rosberg.
Somewhat boringly, the remainder of the race saw the Mercedes continue at the front, in their one-two position. Raikonnen ran solidly and stayed within sight of the Mercedes', but it was his teammate - Sebastian Vettel - who provided the most inspiration and excitement. From his near-last position on the grid, he tenaciously passed car after car, sometimes in fun and heated little mini battles, before running out of time in 5th position, where he finished.
It was not so great a day for the Mclaren Honda team. Both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button retired with mechanical failures before finishing the race - the only team of the day not to finish any cars. Romain Grosjean of Lotus also had a poor day, doing well until mid-race and then running into the back of one of the Marussia cars, ruining his chance of a very decent finishing position.
The other excellent drive of the day was from Williams driver Valtteri Bottas. He had qualified well, starting in 4th, and he managed to capitalize on an error by Raikonnen at the hairpin, when he spun. Going past, Bottas managed to stay ahead of the ferrari and capture the last podium spot (3rd).
With the ordering of the race result fairly well decided (in my mind, anyway), I decided to leave my seat and proceed down to a corner of the open area below stand 12. From last year, we had observed that after the F1 race ends, track officials will open a small door in the fence at that location and let fans out onto the track. From this location, it is only a short distance to the start/finish line and the celebrations of the race finish. Last year, we also discovered that if you were not right at that opening when the race ended, a huge jam of fans formed and blocked access to the track for a time well beyond the end of the winners' ceremonies. I figured going down to that spot with 15 laps to go was plenty [of time].
There was still a sizeable number of people down in the corner below stand 12, although it was not packed, and I was able to weave my way through to within a meter of the door in the fence. I was able to also capture some ground-level shots of turn 2, albeit slightly degraded due to having to shoot through the wire fence.
