iWitness in Abu Dhabi: Saturday

Posted on Sunday 01 Nov 2009 and tagged with iwitness, abu-dhabi.

Having missed out on Beyonce on Thursday night, Nico Rosberg wasn’t going to do the same this evening. Kings of Leon were playing at Ferrari World, adjacent to the Yas Marina Circuit, and he asked our communications team to hurry through his interviews after qualifying so that he could make the 8pm kick off. “They’re mega,” he said.

Nico made it to the gig on time, which was more than could be said for a German journalist, who missed his ‘brunch’ interview with Nico in the AT&T Williams hospitality area. The aforementioned scribe – who will remain nameless to save embarrassment – managed to beach his hire car in some sand en route to the track. Apparently, he’d tried to cross the central reservation to change direction, but never made it to the other side. Doh!

Some guests in the AT&T Williams Paddock Club got more than they’d bargained for this afternoon when they saw Kazuki Nakajima getting chained after qualifying. Kazuki hadn’t bargained on the tinted glass of his changing room becoming see-through after dark, so everyone saw him walking around in his undies…
 
This is BMW Sauber’s last race in Formula One and the team invited everyone in the F1 paddock to raise a glass “to good times”, according to team principal Mario Theissen. Having been a partner of Williams F1 for six years, in which we scored 10 victories together, we’ll certainly drink to that. Thanks for the memories.