Japanese Formula One Grand Prix (Part Three – Sunday Raceday)

Perfect sunny clear skies for raceday today. Day three of our Japanese Grand Prix experience. Tickets to the Japanese Grand Prix are quite reasonably priced. Our two grandstand tickets were about $420 AUD for the three day event ($210 per person). We chose to sit in the Grandstand E which is around the “S” Curve and Dunlop Corner.

As mentioned yesterday we were staying in Nagoya as a convenient way to get to the track each day as well as make it easier for us to move onto our next destination tomorrow.

Essential supplies before heading to the track each day, there was a nice little patisserie at the train station.

There are a few eateries and shopping options around the main Nagoya station so make sure you grab some food and drink before you head to the track. Trains were running very regular this morning – being raceday they obviously expect a very big crowd to be transiting Nagoya onroute to Suzuka Circuit.

Raceday at the Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka Circuit. Due to the crowds today we were a little restricted with photography options.

The circuit was very busy today – so many more people than the last two days. I didn’t take many photos on track today purely due to the increased crowds made it harder to get good vantage points. It is why I always tell people to get your good shots on the quieter days and that way then just enjoy the raceday and the event.

Still plenty of food and drink options today – the lines for drinks could get quite long at times so try and have lunch outside of the “normal” quiet times.

Our hopes for the race were that the Aussie Daniel Ricciardo would have a good result and hopefully take the win. Starting from 7th on the grid it was going to be a tough ask, and sadly for Ricciardo he made contact with Felipe Massa resulting in a punctured tire. Sadly overall he wasn’t able to make it back to the top of the pack and finished in fifteenth place.

Apart from the main event there are plenty of other events and displays on track throughout the event. Such as this one with “classic” Formula One cars.

The race itself wasn’t necessarily the most action packed but it was still an enjoyable race with a few interesting elements. The benefit of the circuit design and where we were seated was that it afforded quite a good vantage point to see across the circuit.

The Porsche Racing series supporting the Formula One event. Not a huge race support program here at Japan as compared to events like the Melbourne Grand Prix.
The driver’s parade before the race is a great chance to get a view of the drivers outside their cars without their helmets on.
Driving for the Honda Team – Fernando Alonso was quite popular amongst fans and the local media. There were hopes that the Honda engine dramas had been sorted.
Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes enjoyed beating his teammate to Pole Position yesterday, sadly Lewis took the lead and went on to win the race from Nico.
The view from the grandstand was quite good, you had vision of the cars entering the S Curves as well as then on the other side of track as they entered the main straight to complete their laps.
The #19 of Felipe Massa finished in 17th place after making contact with Daniel Ricciardo early in the race.
Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t recover from his earlier puncture and contact with Massa and finished in fifteenth place. Such a shame our Aussie favourite wasn’t able to deliver a good finish.
Kimi managed to jump from 6th on the grid to finish in 4th place 13 seconds behind his teammate Sebastian Vettel
A surprisingly good result for the #27 of Nico Hulkenberg for Force India managing to come from 13th on the grid to finish in the points in sixth place.

Whilst the results didn’t go the way of the Australian fans with Daniel Ricciardo not finishing in a great placing the event was still enjoyable.

As a spectator there are plenty of spots to get great vantage points, the circuit is quite large so we didn’t really get a chance to explore it all. Plenty of activities off-circuit that you can keep entertained and likewise the food and drink was amazing. I would certainly consider coming back to the grand prix again.

The lines back to the train after the event were quite long – but that was to be expected. Thankfully the restaurants around Nagoya are open quite late so we were able to get changed and head out for a few drinks and a quick shop around the main downtown area of Sakae.

So we might have hit up Yamachan again for amazing Isakaya food and drinks.

Thanks for following along with my posts about the Japanese Grand Prix. Hopefully for the non-sporting amongst my readers it wasn’t too painful.

Have you ever been to the Japanese Grand Prix? Let me know in the comments below what you thought of the the event.

Nagoya looks like an interesting town, sadly with the Grand Prix taking up our time we didn’t get to look around but it seem like it has a few interesting museums and places worth a look.

As always a big thanks to all of you who read along with these posts and join in with comments. I hope you enjoyed today’s post and that you will follow along again tomorrow.

Category : Destinations, Experiences, Formula 1 Grand Prix, Japan, Travel
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,