By Huw Alban
June 11 2006

Midland F1 Online braved the hot June sunshine for the third and final day of the British Grand Prix weekend, full of hope that Tiago Monteiro could do something useful with his 16th place grid slot.

Oh boy! Today I've got my work cut out for me. No roving around, no corner comparisons, and no fancy camera angles. On race day it's a case of claim your seat and stay there.

Last year Phil and I came to the British Grand Prix with general admission tickets. We got up at 04:30 and were at the circuit for gates opening time at 05:00. Even then there were around 2,000 people queued up at the gate we had chosen to go in from. This year, because I'd been more than a little late in buying my ticket, general admission had sold out so I'd gone for the next cheapest (available) alternative - a seat in the Farm Enclosure. An enclosure is simply concrete terracing with numbered plastic seats bolted down to it, and I have to admit that the view from here was not that wonderful.

Here, I just have to pause for a moment and say yet another huge THANK YOU to our source in the team for arranging a car park space in the factory car park. For some reason the option to have a car park ticket at the circuit itself didn't come up when I ordered my ticket on the Silverstone web site. I tried to buy one on Friday, but was told that there were none available. I mentioned my plight to our source in the paddock on Friday and within minutes a spot in the factory overflow car park had been arranged.

When I got there today Dave, the chap managing the spaces at the car park, ushered me straight into the staff car park at the side of the factory. Apparently, according to him, he'd been told to look after me and that he most definitely did.

OK then, back to the view from the Farm Enclosure. To my right I can see about 100m of the Farm Straight, centre left is the first corner of the Abbey chicane, and to my far left the second corner of the Abbey chicane. About the only plus point here is the fact that I have a good clear view of a TV screen, so at least I won't .miss anything. There is not a hint of any shade so the sun cream has been liberally applied - I've got work tomorrow and a shirt and tie do not mix well with a raw neck.

Tiago and Christijan looked very relaxed together on the drivers parade, and were talking with each other too which was encouraging to see especially after their incident in Monaco.

Johnny Herbert did a quick interview on Silverstone TV talking about how his role with the team has developed this year. According to him, last year he was brought in to handle the press but this year the role has expanded to include input into the engineering side of the team, and working more closely with the drivers.

When the grid was taking shape about 30 minutes before the start of the race, one of the Torro Rosso's went way too hot into the Abbey chicane, locked up his brakes, and took a tour through the gravel and across the grass to recover to the track. Drama already and we haven't even started racing yet! It is worth noting that today the strong breeze that was around yesterday has dropped, which should help in the car balance stakes, although it would be welcome right about now to cool me down a bit.

All eyes were on the big screens as the lights went out. It was really difficult to gauge what was taking place with the Midland boys and I had to wait until the cars came into my view. I was very thankful to see both ahead of the Super Aguris, however I was completely oblivious to Christijan having a poor start and having to overtake them both.

I was startled to see Tiago had lost places, but figured that he'd probably got hustled by Webber, Button, and Trulli at the start but at least he was ahead of his team mate.

On the first lap the 22 cars were a lot more spread out than I'd expected. I'd thought that at a chicane the pack would bunch up on the first few laps, but there were already gaps appearing between competitors notably for me between Midland F1 and Super Aguri.

After the first lap safety car incident, we all enjoyed an opportunistic lunge by Michael Schumacher on Kimi Raikonnen into the Abbey chicane. That little manoeuvre got everyone on their feet and craning forward to follow the two cars as much as possible.

The race then got a little processional from that point on. Both Midland F1 drivers were together with the gap seemingly constant, but both were pulling steadily away from the two Super Aguris. As the fuel burned off Christijan suddenly seemed to close up on Tiago, and I got the distinct feeling that he was holding the Dutchman up until he made his first pitstop.

Ah yes, pitstops. This is another area where the TV coverage scores in a big way. When you watch the coverage at home you are kept in constant touch with positions, through commentary and graphics. Seeming a race live, where the circuit commentary is almost permanently drowned out and the TV screens so small that the graphics are unreadable surely does make for a confusing time. I have to be honest that as the first round of pitstops progress I gradually lost touch with the race positions. Sure, I knew who was leading, the constant TV pictures of Fernando Alonso gave that one away but as for the rest of the pack - not a clue.

Christijan managed to get past Tiago in the first round of stops, and it was very encouraging to see him gradually close on the Torro Rosso of Vitantonio Liuzzi. It was a great shame that the two had to constantly give way to the leaders and let them through, as I'm sure that they would have had a great scrap for position other wise.

Once the second round of stops had been completed, it became impossible to see whether either Midland F1 driver was gaining or losing - a big timing screen would have been very useful at this point.

Fernando Alonso took the win and the crowd showed their appreciation of his fine efforts. He too enjoyed the moment slowing right down to wave at the cheering crowd. Tiago gave a quick wave just before the first corner at Abbey, but there was no acknowledgement from Christijan at all.

I quickly retreated under a tree, once the last car had gone through, and sat down to note the memorable moments of the race for me. This last three days has been something of a whirlwind simply because I wasn't expecting to be here. I've had a thoroughly good time, and I hope that I've been able to bring some of the atmosphere and excitement of the British Grand Prix weekend to you the reader. Our source in the team has already indicated that it would be great to do it again next year, so until then…

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