Mark Hughes: Trackside View

Dwarfed by the surreal scale and shape of the grandstand buildings, a child's eye view of what the future was going to look like, location uncertain, no visual giveaways, just a hazy sky and a hot high sun. Just some time in an unspecified future.

Sneak around the back of that future and you find it's a scam, not as it seems. Here where the rice fields should be, carbon brake discs are glowing red as the drivers pull on the downshift paddles five times, staccato, and the speed is wiped so clean it's hard to believe it was ever there. Hardly anyone sees.

It's Friday afternoon and grandstand seats in different colours that trick a panning camera into making them appear as spectators are about all that's looking on - another scam. The grandstand roofs masquerade as giant mushrooms. Ferrari's front wheel covers have an image of a wheel on them, covering up the real wheel, tricking the eye and the airflow.

Lewis Hamilton is braking and changing down to perfection, no wasted grip, inner front wheel just thinking of locking as he's releasing the pedal pressure then hitting a perfect apex. Jarno Trulli is late too, but the Toyota is still giving him an adventure as he's making the turn. Mark Webber's super-late on his first attack, but locks up and misses the apex by a metre.

Nico Rosberg's early laps appear to have spare braking capacity in the last part of the corner, like he's taken a little bit too much speed off in the first part of the braking zone. As Trulli and Webber move back from their starting point, Rosberg moves forward and after a few laps they've met in the middle.

A huge contrast between the Honda drivers, Rubens Barrichello bullying it into turning in, Jenson Button trying to flatter the ugly machine into believing it's beautiful. Trying to scam it.