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Official Photog Station
The end approaches
Impressive showing for Valtteri
courtesy JInnes
Kimi in 4th
Lewis Wins Again
Lewis fans are happy
As predicted, Hamilton crossed the finish line first, and soon came within sight, cruising around turn two and holding up a hand in triumph. All of the other remaining F1 cars also came by, with the exception of Marcus Ericsson's blue Sauber, which glided to a stop right after turn one, and directly in front of where I was standing. Twin wisps of smoke curled up from his brakes as he wrangled his way out of his car.

The race officials wouldn't open the door in the fence until the Sauber was removed from the track (no doubt to protect the car from ravenous F1 fans who would probably steal or damage all sorts of stuff off of it. So, for the next few agonzingly slow minutes, we had to wait as a nearby crane truck slowly maneuvered the broken-down Sauber onto a tow truck. As we waited, we could see the final ceremonies starting on the big jumbotron above us. From immediately behind me came angry grumbling and impatient callouts from the now substantial fence-side crowd.
Post-race disablement
Finally, Ericsson's car was safely out of the way, and the fence door was opened. With a surprisingly strong push from the mob behind me, I popped out onto the track, where fans from other already-opened sections were running full speed towards the start-finish area.

I half-ran, half-jogged, fortunately managing to arrive before everything was done. Hamilton, Rosberg and Valtteri were still on the podium, and were just about to receive their trophies. Hamilton seemed much more relaxed and happy on the top podium position - certainly much happier than two week's before at Monaco, when through some slight mismanagement by his team, he had to stand on the lowest podium stand. Nice to see a lack of poutiness today.
courtesy JInnes
Dash to the Podium
Dashing
Proceedings in progress
Despite the Sauber blockade at the end of the race, my view of the podium was still quite good. The long lens I had helped bring things right up close, and I got good shots of the current celebrities of formula one.
Awards about to begin
Hamilton's Win
Champagne Spray Time
Downing the Mumm
Waving to the Audience
Nico Interview
I waited, leaning against the wall right at the start/finish line. We had all agreed that I would wait here until Jenn, Luke and Adrienne slowly filtered their way over to me. It was a suprisingly long period of time - perhaps twenty more minutes - clearly showing that if you want to see the podium proceedings after a race (and you aren't sitting in Stand #1 or the nearby VIP areas), you have to position yourself well before race end time.
courtesy JInnes
Happy Mercedes Pits
Mass Exodus
Disappointing Day
Reunited once again, we walked with the slowly-moving mass of people along the track. We stopped along the way to take a few shots into the pits, where teams had already mostly packed up, no doubt preparing for the air transport back to home base (or to Austria, where the next Grand Prix will be held).
courtesy JInnes
Stacks of Pirellis
Toro Rosso Pits
Post-race inspection
Post-race inspection
Well-used
Metrojam
Arriving back at the Jean-Drapeau metro station, we took one look at the massive sea of people in front of the station entrance and decided nope, we weren't standing in that. We elected to sit under a shady cluster of trees between the station and a nearby public swimming pool, have a snack, and watch the crowd slowly empty into the metro. When the level of the crowd had dropped to sane levels, we'd then proceed onward.

It was a good half an hour before the crowd had noticeably thinned. Soon after, we were on a northbound subway train, and made our way back up to Laval. After some thank-yous and goodbyes with Luke's in-laws, we started the drive back to Ottawa. A fun weekend - hopefully next year's Canadian GP will see more interesting competition at the head of the F1 pack.
Supplemental Images: If you'd like to see more pictures from our race weekend, click here. That link takes you to another bunch of decent pictures that didn't make it into this main narrative.
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Walk to Stand 11 - click map to view
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