Day - 4, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

We had a lie in this morning, not getting up till 08:20. Brekkie was nice and plentiful, though Phil only had cereal and a coffee. A lady came with a tray of goodies, 2 of everything. You can be sure I didn't let anything go to waste. Phil took a banana for his lunch, whilst I packed up most of his uneaten breakfast for mine.

The circuit isn't too far away, about 13 miles, so it was a fairly quick journey. We were prevented from getting to the car park I'd identified, which meant we were parked at the opposite end of the circuit from our stand. We entered at the first gate we came to, where I was turned back because I had my metal drinks bottle with me. Thermos' are ok apparently, so I argued that's what it was but they weren't budging, so I could either throw it in the bin or take it back to the bike. More steps for me then! Meant I had to buy a bottle of water, 1.5l for €5.

We didn't have a circuit map, so although I had an idea of where our stand was, I had no idea it was as far away as it was and it was hard to get our bearings on the ground, as to which part of the track we were by. It must have taken us about 30 minutes and asking a few times, before we finally got to the right stand. Thankfully though, it's a covered one, so we were spared having to slop on factor 50 and risk getting sunstroke.

The view from our seats is pretty good. We can see the bikes come down the last part of the straight, go into turns one and two, then they re-appear from our left coming out of turn five, round six, before disappearing into seven. We have a big screen to watch for the rest of the lap.

There wasn't too much incident to speak of until the very last lap or two of the MotoGP practice session, when Johann Zarco (French) fell off in the gravel in from of us, followed quickly after, by Enea Bastianini (Italian), whose bike ended up on top of the tyre wall and wedged between it and the fencing. Both riders were ok, bikes not so. More entertainment was to come watching the marshalls retrieve the striken bike. It needed a fork lift type thingy to lift it from where it was wedged. Job done, there was a round of applause for them.

Coming back was as to be expected, roads chocka with traffic. We managed to filter for a while then a gap appeared and like a rat up the proverbial I managed to wind my way through the cars and continue on my way. Phil wasn't so lucky. Long story short, I was at the hotel 30 minutes before Phil. Only problem, I couldn't get in the stupid qr coded room, having no phone!

We ate at the hotel place again. I had a plate of very tender calimari, salted and with a lime mayonaise. It was very nice. 

Tomorrow we'll be up earlier, as the circuit will be busier for sure. We'll try and get closer to the right end of the circuit this time but if not, at least we now know the quick way to get to our stand. The day will mostly be qualifying until the MotoGP sprint race, which is exactly what the name suggests, a mad dash over about 10 laps.

Till tomorrow then.