Sunday
Today’s meal: Reheated pizza from yesterday. They can’t all be gourmet meals. Still great though.
F1 Monaco
It’s 5:30 am. The sun
isn’t even up yet, but I am. How could I
resist the opportunity to finally see the Monaco race in English for the
first time? The broadcast said it was
live as well (but I’m still skeptical). In
the pre-race, this track was compared to “threading a needle at 100mph,” and
“riding a unicycle through a fine china shop.”
But who cares about the race?
It’s all about the glamour. They
showed scenes of the street parties that were going on only a few hours before
the race. The stands, the yachts, the
hotel balconies, and even the even the free seating on the overlooking hill
were filled.
Local boy, Nico Rosberg had won the all-important pole
position, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton right next to him at the start. The announcers mentioned there was some
controversy about qualifying, which was never explained. Mostly the rivalry between these two was
hyped up.
The only hope of an interesting race was either rain or a
bunch of NASCAR’s showing up.
Essentially, Rosberg took the lead at the start and never gave it
up. The announcers tried to build up
some drama, saying he might run out of fuel before the end. Right.
Hamilton
came in second, though he had to fight for it at the end against third place Daniel
Ricciardo. Even the other drivers
politely pulled over to let them race, desperate to see some racing action
themselves. Hammy may have had some
vision problems that cut his speed in the later laps. I didn’t get confirmation during the
broadcast.
There were a few interesting incidents. Perez was knocked out by Button early in the
race. Gutierrez hit a barrier late and
was taken out. Suddenly I was missing
the hysterical call of the Uni-mas announcers.
Four-time champion Vettel retired early with electrical issues. Adrian Sutil, who’d managed to make three
passes on track had the biggest wreck.
This brought out the Safety Car and a bunch of cars pitting for
tires. There was some gamesmanship as
racers were blocked in to help teammates, such is the desperation for position
on the world’s most famous slot-car track.
NBC went side-by-side with commercials during green flag
racing, but did not break away during a wreck though. I only noticed one, full-screen local break,
and that was during another Safety Car period.
The feel-good story of the race for me was hearing that recently retired
Mark Weber was out on one of the yachts, finally able to watch a Monaco race in
peace.
Indy 500
KVIA El Paso was still broadcasting sound with no pictures
on Sunday. I can hardly convey my
disappointment. This might be my
favorite sporting event of the year, ruined for no apparent reason. I didn’t even care to follow what
happened. Worst of all, I didn’t even
get to hear Jim Nabors last performance of “My Indiana Home.”
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