Well it's true what they say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. After a long weekend at Silverstone, I'm still dry under the boots, waterproofs and umbrellas! We camped at Whittlebury Park, where they had done their best, given the conditions, but it still paid to turn up on Thursday. We were lucky with our pitch, being right next to the gravel track, so no tractors needed to pull us out. If I go again, I'll be requesting exactly the same spot. Thursday evening was brightened by a few F1 stars visiting Whittlebury Hall (I have a feeling some were actually staying there), and Fernando Alonso was a gent, spending the most time with the samll crowd that had gathered, and even running back up the line to return a pen that he still had hold of.

On Friday & Saturday, our Grandstand Tickets (we don't go often, so we decided to splash out) allowed us access to any stand, so we made the most of it by sitting at Becketts, Woodcote, end of Pit Straight and Club, before getting up super early on Saturday to bag some front row finish line seats for quali. For the race, we had seats on the back row of Village B grandstand, from where we could see the exit of Farm, the whole of the Village/Loop complex, across to Becketts/Maggots, behind us to the bridge over Wellington straight, and just about (in the distance) the entrance to Stowe. Pretty good considering I picked the seats after just researching online! Next time, I think Woodcote would be better, as you get Wellington straight, Brooklands (main overtaking opportunity) Luffield, Woodcote and (if positioned correctly) the old pits straight up to Copse.

Despite the weather, we had a fantastic time and were treated to mexican waves by the teams, marshalls and Nico & Ross Brawn whilst quali was red flagged! I do, however, think a lot of money has been spent on the corporate infrastructure and not enough on the fans' infra. Every stand is still a scaffold affair, and a lot of the parking issues would be solved with some of the temporary ground matting used by the army, and at other large events. But it's all about the profit isn't it... That sad, they did do their best suring some unprecedented weather conditions. According to those who were there, this was worse than the infamous April British GP! The tickets, whilst expensive, make a long weekend fairly equivalent to a city break and when you consider the amount of entertainment on offer, I don't think are quite as horrendous as they first seem (£315 for 3 days of circa 9 hrs of entertainment, plus the F1 party afterwards, and £80 for 4 nights camping).

Anyway, without further ado, here are the best of my photos from the weekend, where I test drove (drum roll....) my new Sigma 150-500 lens (cue slightly disappointed look from all but the photographers!). I'm really pleased with some of them, as they're the type of photo I've wanted to take for years, hence this 'showing off' thread! Hope you enjoy.

[photos to be added shortly)

 

Photos are shrunk and compressed for the upload, so a little softer than the originals.
Free Practice 1:


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Free Practice 2:

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Free Practice 3:

Nice view for FP3/Quali!
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Qualifying:

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Race Day:

Spent most of race day just watching, as the back row of Village wasn't the best spot for photos.

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That's all, folks!