Knowing where the Non-Reserved car was, I went to the platform 40 minutes early today to line up for the Nanki. This paid off as I was able to get one of the last seats available before standing room started.
There was very much more people on the way to the track today. The race wasn’t set to start until 2:00pm and at this point it was about 11:00am. If you have GA tickets to Suzuka, I honestly would suggest getting here even earlier to secure a spot.
Despite the additional people, the walk still only took about 20 minutes as the flow of traffic was the same speed.
Once inside the gate, the density increased dramatically.
The past couple days I was a bit sick (sore throat) so I was a bit tired. I knew once I found a spot that I had 0 plans on moving from it until I left. So I picked up a Red Bull from one of the standing vendors near the Red Bull tent. Gotta support my team after all. It came with this gormless Max Verstappen temporary tattoo (I think?).
I had decided that I was going to watch the race from Section G, where I watched Qualifying yesterday. All of the normal tiered seats I could see (which is a lot) were already claimed.
There is, however, a section of steep grass between two of the tiered sections. This area had some sort of flat spots where people would deploy their camping chairs.
I planned for this by buying a tiny foldable stool from Logos earlier in the trip. Pictures do not fully establish how small this stool actually is (100mmx100mm). It worked perfectly for me, and I don’t think anything larger would have worked for where I ended up.
I do wish I was able to be a bit higher on the hill since this was my view for the race. Remaining seated was very much (thankfully) enforced during the race.
Even if I couldn’t see the lower section of the track, I could still see the overpass straight and could look over at the (distant) screen for other action.
Additionally, on the first day I got a radio from the Amex booth for being a cardholder. This means that I was able to tune into the English Commentary for all of the F1 events for the weekend.
Shortly after arriving, they had the driver’s parade.
All of the drivers for Red Bull and Racing Bulls were separately paraded in Honda S660’s to celebrate their final year running on Honda engines.
They then did a bit of racing.
Due to the rain earlier in the day, risk of further rain (that never happened), and my spot for the day; I did not take out my camera for nicer pictures. It probably would’ve been pretty hard to do anyway with the speeds they would be at.
I did see a large cube once I was back in Nagoya though.
While I didn’t get any additional pictures, I did pick up some merch. Both the happi and the shirt were Suzuka exclusives.
