For the second time in two years the weather played a decisive factor in the Shanghai Grand Prix. The air is normally dry and at this time of year the temperature is between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius so you would expect a wet track to dry out very quickly.

It usually does, but after periods of rain the air becomes laden with moisture which means the track will not dry out even when the rain has stopped. The local people know this so I am sure, right now, they are having a quiet chuckle at the expense of the world's top motor racing teams.

Last year's race was held after a period of rain and so some teams who changed early on to dry tyres were caught out. This year the exact opposite happened. Heavy rain had been forecast but it didn't appear. Early in the morning there was no rain and the roads in the city were just a little damp from the overnight rain which meant a real challenge to the teams' race strategies.

'Hamilton ended up arriving back at the pit lane on the back of someone's moped which was definitely not in the race plan'


There was a light shower just before the start of the race but the English language commentator at the circuit was able to predict it's arrival within one minute. Lewis Hamilton pulled away and looked to have secured the Championship but there was always a chance that the weather would intervene as from my seat at the far end of the circuit you could see that part of the track was drying while there were still big puddles on the other side.

Looking across from my exposed position you could see that there was a shower in Shanghai's outer Jiading district. It was coming this way and when it arrived some of the lower placed drivers started sliding around as if they were on an ice rink.

The shower soon passed then all of a sudden Hamilton was out of the race. On the TV screen You could see him trying to get a push start out of the trackside gravel, but it wasn't to be. Hamilton ended up arriving back at the pit lane on the back of someone's moped which was definitely not in the race plan.

The Shanghai Circuit has won many plaudits since it was built a few years ago and is a good place to visit even if you don't like motor sport that much. Shows with both an international and Far Eastern flavour are put on, primarily for the benefit of partners of motor racing fans who get dragged along for the ride.

There is the free bus service to and from the centre of the city for ticket holders. This is the sort of thing people like and will get them coming back next year.

It is difficult to follow what is going although I could read the names of the drivers on the video screen this time but only because the shapes of the letters in Raikkonen are different to those of Alonso, Massa and Hamilton. I could hear the commentary this time but it was in the style of an English eccentric motor racing fan which perhaps only ten people in the circuit understood.

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