Our predictions of big crowds for the Sunday race were accurate and the queues for the trains were super long but the number of trains providing transport was adequate so there wasn’t much waiting time.
At Shiroka Station the queue for the buses was probably about two kilometres long but the large number of buses on standby meant that we were on a bus in under an hour.
At the Suzuka track the feature event for the morning was the Porsche Cup race.
The competition was tight and the drivers were giving their all making for an exciting race. Then a catastrophic crash occurred with the coming together of two cars at around 200 km/h. This resulted in one car flipping over and cart-wheeling through the air high over the tyre barrier into an area adjacent to spectators. The race was then red-flagged and terminated. Fortunately, no one was killed and miraculously the driver survived although his very expensive Porsche would have been undoubtedly destroyed.
Porsche Carrera Cup winner,
The F1 race was due to start at 14:00 but was delayed by ten minutes while the tyre barrier at the accident site was repaired.
The race now underway was very exciting with Piastri and Antonelli doing battle at the front for the first ten laps but eventually the Mercedes’ power proved the better and Antonelli won by thirteen seconds from Piastri with LeClerk and Russell a further second behind. Pierre Gasly drove brilliantly in the under-rated Alpine to hold off a challenge from Max Verstappen for the last thirty laps.
Grand stand & pit exit
Pit lane exit
Liam Lawson
Sir Louis Hamilton, Ferrari, Corner 1
Kimi Antonelli is not only the youngest driver on the grid but he now leads the world championship, the youngest to ever do so.
National Anthem
Japanese F1 Grand Prix circuit from grandstand, Sazuka, Japan
Having successfully navigated her way on the train system yesterday, Corinne decided to go to the Nagoya Castle. The train stop was right at the entrance to the Castle and there were signs in English so there was no problem finding it after disembarking from the train.
The queue was quite long but it progressed quickly with everyone politely lining up. The entrance fee was only ¥500 (approximately AUD 5.00), which covered entrance to the Nagoya Gardens plus the Hommaru Palace.
Queue for the Nagoya Castle
Once inside the gate, it seemed that a large proportion of the local Nagoya residents was enjoying spending Sunday with their families at the gardens. The whole time Corinne was at the castle, amongst the thousands of people, she only saw two women with blonde hair.
Crowds at Nagoya Castle
Nagoya Castle & Hommaru Palace
Nagoya Castle
The gardens were beautiful with cherry blossoms starting to bloom.
Cherry blossom
Cherry blossom
Cherry blossom
Even though the queue was long, she decided to go into the Hommaru Palace which had been restored and beautifully decorated based on records of the original palace.
Decorative paintings of tigers & leopards in a bamboo grove on wall, Entrance Hall to the Hommaru Palace
Ceiling decoration, Hommaru Palace
Room inside Hommaru Palace
Corinne spent the next couple of hours wandering around the castle grounds and managed to find a quiet area on a lawn to have her lunch before venturing back home.
To finish the day we had excellent dinner at a curry restaurant just around the corner from our Airbnb.
Bryce, Jak, Corinne & Marcus, dinner at curry restaurant, Chikusa
Tomorrow Marcus and Bryce head home to Australia and we begin the next stage of our adventure by moving on to Tokyo.