Quallie!

Lambourghini's

We have another enjoyable day ahead of us at the Melbourne Grand Prix and the walk in to the circuit is getting busier with each passing day. First a little bit of shopping followed by an enjoyable coffee in one of the many street cafes along Fitzroy Street adjacent to Albert Park. As we approach the entrance, all lined up on the entry road to the circuit, is a long double line of Lamborghini’s all polished and with people posing inside them, so much ostentatious money out there on the tarmac. They’re only allowed one circuit of Albert Park before they’re being directed out of the gates. We’re fortunate enough to be here for the 1000^th Beaurepaires Supercars Melbourne 400 Race and judging by the excitement amongst the Aussies it’s a really big thing here. There’s a fair amount of jostling for position at corners 15 & 16 which is good as that’s where we’re sitting. This is the first year that the American Ford Mustangs have been in Supercars racing and they dominate from start to finish knocking the Holden’s off their long-time dominance of this race.

 The 1000th Beaurepaires Supercars Melbourne 400 Race  

Well, 3^rd Practise has one of the Ferrari’s at the top of the leader board, looks like Mercedes have a bit of work to do. Walking round the outside of the track we come across Aussie men dressed in a yellow dress, a red bull out fit and lots and lots of yellow for Danny Ricciardo, the local hero. There’s a great quad bike and pedal bike jumping display, an MG car display and a very loud air display again by the Australian Air Force, the sound of it would make you want to wave a white flag in surrender.

MG display

Finally, qualifying time is here, an hour of high-octane cars and excitement. The stands are full of people all waiting for the action to start, then, the high-pitched whine of the F1 cars engines and they’re off. With so many changes to the cars and drivers its hard to know what will happen and each section of qualifying ramps up the excitement with many of the rookie drivers performing well but in the end, in the final qualifying session Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton squeeze that extra few ounces of speed out of the car to qualify in pole position. It’s a great result, 6 consecutive pole positions here at the Melbourne Grand Prix but who knows if he can convert this into a win tomorrow. We’ll have to wait and see.

Tonight, we’re celebrating and the Babu Ji restaurant seems to fit the bill. It’s just off the main road to St Kilda and is a plain high ceiling room but in a stroke of genius it’s screening Bollywood movies and music onto the wall and ceiling. This sets the scene for the whole place and the food is to be honest fabulous, originating from Northern India with an Australian twist, slow cooked fragrant beef, hot and spicy lamb, rice, nan and raita what more could we wish for, may be a relaxing local drink on the way home. The Banff provides just this, in a relaxed room with lots of wooden tables of different styles, a brick fireplace and a large wooden bar. There’s locals in here tourists and even the odd Italian Grand Prix  photographer still hanging onto his camera and official photographers tabard.