Saturday is an important day in a F1 Weekend. The day starts early for the teams and as an avid fan, I don't like to miss a moment.

One has to leave early on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the Teams' Pit Stop Practice happening on Saturday Morning.

The Saturday Chauffeur Transfer was in the powerful and Sporty Audi RS6!! What a Car!

Enroute to the Circuit :

I reached the Circuit and the Pit Lane Walk was underway. Shots from the Pit Lane on Saturday Morning :

Williams F1 Racing were busy practising their Pit Stops :

Video Link for Williams F1 Team Pit Stop Practice :

With Jonathan ( Handles the Hospitality for Ferrari Guests ) from Scuderia Ferrari F1 :


Jean Eric Vergne & Maurizio Arrivabene in the Garage :


With the Boss of AVL Racing :


Shots from the GoPro Hero4 Black Edition :


A Moment with Esteban Gutierrez :


Mark Sutton :


GP3 Cars rolling into the Pit Lane :

Quick GoPro Selfies with the Cars :

The Main Grandstand from the Paddock Club :

Shots from the GP3 Session :


GP3 ended and it was time for Free Practice 3 to begin. Felipe Massa had an early sighter lap in the session


Kimi Raikkonen followed suit :


Shots from FP3 :


Some More Stills :


Scuderia Ferrari F1 in FP3 :


Fernando Alonso stopped ontrack and the session had to be red flagged. The McLaren gave up on the Pit Straight :


Mechanics wheeling back the car :


Fernando's Long Walk back to the Pits :


The session restarted but the changeable weather of Spielberg brought in the rains :


Video Link to Rain in FP3. Shot with the GoPro Hero4 :





The Drivers nevertheless went out on track to collect valuable data for the engineers since Qualifying was predicted to be in the wets.


Once the Session got over the Drivers practiced their starts from various starting grids :

Video Link to Practice Starts :



The Session ended with Ferrari right in the mix to challenge the Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel was the fastest again with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen only 2 tenths of a second down on the German's time. Rosberg was 5th around 3 tenths down on the time. The Field was pretty bunched up and Qualifying seemed promising.


The Session got over and we were soon joined by Esteban Gutierrez :


Esteban left the club and then entered Jean-Eric Vergne!!

Video Link to Vergne's Interview :




Post the Interviews it was time to binge before heading down for the 2nd Pit lane walk of the day :

Enroute to the Pit Lane. The Paddock was abuzz with activity :


Shots from the Pit Lane :


GoPro Hero4 being put through its paces :

With Paul Seaby ( Lotus F1 ) :


Claudio Bersini from Ferrari :


Ted Kravitz!! ( Sky Sports F1 ) :


The Pit Lane walk ended but the heavy shower had left behind a lot of wet patches on the track.

Valtteri Bottas deep in conversation before the start of Qualifying :


A Damp Track at the start of Qualifying :


Selfie time again! GoPro Hero4 Rocks!


Shots from Q1 as the track dries up.

Teams Switching to the slicks as the track started drying up quickly :

Williams had a slow pit stop with Bottas. Video Link



Scuderia Ferrari F1 in Q1 :

Cars returning to the pits :

As the Timer counted down, the track got drier and faster. The Last Man to take the Chequered Flag would be the fastest. Ferrari mistimed Kimi Raikkonen's exit from the pits. This meant that he ran into Traffic on his flying lap and was shunted out of Q1!!!

Kimi qualified a dismal 18th and it was another torturous Saturday. He would however start 14th after penalties being applied to drivers above him

Nico Rosberg was the fastest in Q1 with Sebastian Vettel 2nd.


Q2 began and a lot of strategies played out on track. Some went out early while some played the waiting game.

Shots from Q2 :

Chequered Flag in Q2 :

Nico Rosberg was fastest in Q2. Lewis Hamilton & Sebastian Vettel completed the top 3.

Q3 would be a shootout between the top 10 drivers to decide the final 10 places and the sharp end of the grid.


Shots from Q3 :

Q3 wasn't without drama. Lewis Hamilton was leading in Q3 and went out on his final run only to miss the First Turn on his flying lap. Nico Rosberg was 2 tenths up and nearing the end of his Flying Lap only to misread the last section and ended up in the gravel trap!

Lewis Hamilton held on to be on Pole. Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel completed the top 3.


It had been a dramatic qualifying session and I was so gutted to see Kimi languishing down in 18th. However it couldn't be undone.

Kimi was due to visit the Suite post the debacle and he obliged.


Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari F1 Club :

Video Link to Kimi Raikkonen's Interview :




Kimi left and it was time to sit back and enjoy the GP2 Feature Race :


Video Link for the GP2 Feature Race Formation Lap :




Video Link for the GP2 Feature Race Start :




Video Link for Lap 1 :




Arden Pit Stop in the Feature Race ( Video Link ) :




The Race got over and I headed to the Paddock Side to catch up on some action. I was pleasantly surprised to see Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull Motorhome in conversation with old friends Christian Horner and Red Bull Owner Dietrich Mateschitz.

The Spread of Pirelli Tyres. What a sight to behold :


The Beauty of Speilberg, Amazing! The Most Beautiful track I have ever been to!

Returning to Graz in the evening.


Kimi Raikkonen had a dismal Qualifying but nevertheless it was a memorable Saturday.

I would like to thank Scuderia Ferrari and the Ferrari F1 Club for all the Hospitality shown to me.

A Big Thank you to Edge Global Events too for all the arrangements done over the weekend

I have really enjoyed the company of my new equipment - Sony HX400V and the GoPro Hero4 Black. Sony must introduce the feature of taking photos while shooting videos like the predecessor of HX400V.

Sunday is the day that matters and I was hopeful that Kimi would have a better outing on the day that matters the most.

Sunday post coming up soon! Thank you for the Support!