Today was race day so I got up and headed out early after seeing the crowds at the train station yesterday. I got to the train station without incident and the line was easily 3-4 times as long as the day before. After waiting and chatting with another fan from Australia for a bit we moved to the platform and caught our train. I helped him find his way to his stands before heading out at my exit and into Monaco. I decided to kill a little time looking around the streets near where I needed to go into my stands so I wandered a bit. After a while I decided I should head to my seats so I grabbed a sandwich, soda and water from a vendor and moved to my seat.

I caught the end of the Formula Renault race which got red flagged after a major incident in Sainte Devote corner which would predict action in the main race later. After the race I spent some time taking pictures and enjoying the view from my seat which today was in the K grandstand which basically overlooks the harbor. From my seat I could see from the tunnel exit through the Nouvelle Chicane and down into the swimming pool complex. I could also see the cars for just a bit as they went up the hill our of Sainte Devote. Also I noticed during the Formula Renault race several people taking pictures behind us through a gap and sure enough we could see just a tiny bit of the front straight. I took advantage later at the race start to video from that point of view.

The drivers parade was next and unlike the true “parade” of historic cars like I had seen in Indy, Montreal and Austin in Europe they have this big Mercedes semi with a flatbed trailer that the drivers all get on with the Sky news team from Britain who interviews them as they slowly drive around the track. The race started right at 2 and from the beginning it was a typical Monaco race where basically it was a parade in order at the front (there were a few incidents and passes further back). Lewis Hamilton led comfortably the entire race but with about 15 laps remaining Max Verstappen attempted a pass and caught the back tire of the car he was passing and crashed heavily into the Sainte Devote barriers. He got out of the car and seemed fine but this brought out a safety car and unbelievably Lewis was called in to the pits. He had a big lead but not enough to keep Nico Rosberg (his teamate) and Sebastian Vettel from passing him for first and second. By the time the Safety car came back in with less than 10 laps to go it was all over even with his newer tires he not only never got past Vettel but his teamate cruised off into the distance to take his third straight Monaco Grand Prix. I stayed for the interviews and just a bit longer to let the crowd thin out a bit. While watching I noticed they almost immediately began taking down the tirewall and padded barriers on the corner near my stands. When I left I decided to grab an ice cream as I had only had the sandwich all day and was a bit hungry. I did some final looking around for possible souvenirs then got back to the train.

note Lewis in the lead above

Not anymore 😦

After getting home and checking on Becky’s day we decided to head to dinner. After dinner we headed over to the Place Massena which is a big open square with a park extending north out of it. We walked through the park as the sun set then as the buildings were lit up took some pictures of the square and surrounding area at night. We finished off our walk at Place Rosseti in Old town and some ice cream from Fennochios.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to Grasse and possibly up the Route Napoleon a ways then on our way back to Nice we plan to hit St. Paul de Vence. See you then!