Formula 1, Monza Autodromo

We all wokeup at 4 this morning.  Katrina was heading to Paris for the weekend, so we needed to get her to the airport for her 6:30am flight. 

She was going to Paris to spend some time seeing several museums that Brandon and I would probably get bored in.  She reserved time for a nighttime photography tour with a professional photographer.  She will return on Monday morning.  It blows my mind that we can do weekend trips like this...pop over to Paris...and do it so cheaply. 

Brandon and I returned home and went back to bed for a few hours. 

Today we headed to the annual Monza Formula 1 races at the Autodromo.  The world famous Autodromo is located just a few blocks from our house here in Vedano al Lambro.  Its the biggest event of the year, bringing in several hundred thousand visitors over the three day weekend.  Many of the streets in Vedano are closed, except for local traffic. 

Friday consisted of practice sessions.  Today consisted of practice sessions and qualifying sessions.  We watched the last F1 practice session in the morning.  This was followed by a qualifying session for the Porche race. 

Exclusive parking for Ferraris

Apparently HP is an F1 sponsor again. 

In the afternoon we watched the F1 qualifying round.  Ferrari probably has the most fans at this track, with the majority of fans in the famous Ferrari red colors.  Its the home track for Ferrari racing.  They managed to qualify for 1st and 3rd placements for tomorrows race.  Not bad. 

We had a lot of fun walking around, watching the races, watching people and eating some tasty food.  Brandon bought a Ferrari F1 slot car for his track. 

I didn't take as many pictures this year, for two reasons:  1)  The pics would just be similiar to last years post, and 2) my battery died. 

This evening we made the mistake of heading to Auchan for a few groceries.  Many of the roads leading from the Autodromo were turned into one-way streets for all the traffic leaving.  Most of the others had barricades blocking traffic from entering. 

We made it to Auchan just fine, but ended up being routed around the the next town, Lissone, and going home on a little used backroad.  We made it, but we remembered our lesson from last year - go away for the weekend, or just stay home and don't go out with the car.  We will just stay home tomorrow.