New Delhi, October 29
You would never have heard anything like it. The scream of a Formula One car isn’t a sound you will forget in a hurry. Stripped down to bare essentials, with a brute of an engine hammering away horse power beyond the comprehension of a normal person, an F-1 car idles at RPMs that you would struggle to get out of your daily ride, while trying to outdo each other on the mad roads of Delhi.

This noise and the roars that go with the Formula One extravaganza are set to explode on the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Greater Noida tomorrow, as India becomes the newest venue for the mother of all motor sports.

There will be noise, there will be the roar of the crowd and there will be music, with Lady Gaga adding to the kaleidoscope of sounds and colours. That show has become even more important now, thanks to the Metallica fiasco in Gurgaon on Friday.

But for some, it’s business as usual. World champion Sebastian Vettel did what he does best - beat the opposition as he clocked his 13th F-1 pole position this season with a time of one minute, 24.178 seconds - giving his team, Red Bull, a record 16 pole positions in the season.

But not all is good for the drivers. Lewis Hamilton, not so long ago the blue-eyed boy of F-1, finished second behind Vettel but has had a three-place penalty slapped on him, while the local favourite Narain Karthikeyan has a five-place penalty, which pits him in 23rd position.

Karthikeyan was penalised for not letting Michael Schumacher pass during the qualification races. Given the fact that the Indian is driving for HRT, which has the slowest cars in the line-up, it would serve Karthikeyan well just to finish the race.

He wasn’t the only one to come to grief, though the fast BIC track will surely challenge even the top drivers, especially with the unstoppable dust and the haze making things just a shade more trying.

But all things considered, the anticipated packed house is in for the time of their lives. This is surely going to be one for the racing fanatics, as also for those curious souls who have paid fairly hefty amounts to be at the BIC when the chequered flag goes down at 3 p.m. For them, life will never be the same again. Neither will their eardrums.