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Circuit description Albert Park
Albert Park, Melbourne's GP circuit, is a street circuit, just outside the central business area near the beachside district of St. Kilda, Australia. The Australian F1 circuit is smooth but can be quite dusty and is fairly low-grip and tough on brakes. Drivers approach the first corner at more than 300 kmh. The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix race annually draws a crowd of around 400,000 over the four days. The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit is a street-based circuit around Albert Park Lake, only a couple of kilometers south of central Melbourne.
Circuit Albert Park utilizes everyday sections of road that circle Albert Park Lake, a small man-made lake just south of the Central Business District of Melbourne. The road sections that are used were rebuilt prior to the inaugural event in 1996 to ensure consistency and smoothness. As a result, compared to other circuits that are held on public roads, Albert Park is quite smooth as a racing surface and picturesque as there are only a few other places on the Formula 1 calendar where there is a body of water close to a racing track.
As a racing track of interest to drivers, Melbourne's F1 Grand Prix circuit is considered quite fast and relatively easy to drive, drivers having commented that the consistent placement of corners allows them to easily learn the circuit and achieve competitive times. However, the flat terrain around the lake, coupled with the track design, means that the track is not conducive to overtaking or easy spectating unless in possession of a grandstand seat.
Each year, the track is erected from approximately 4 weeks prior to the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix race event and taken down within 2 weeks after the Australian F1 event. Land around circuit Albert Park (including a large aquatic centre, a golf course, a football stadium, some restaurants and rowing boathouses) have restricted access on the weekend of the Australian F1 event. Dissent is still prevalent among residents around the track area and some still maintain a silent protest against the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix event. Nevertheless, the event is immensely popular in Melbourne and Australia.
Region
Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second largest city (after Sydney) in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.6 million (2001 census) in the Melbourne metropolitan area and 69,670 in the City of Melbourne (which covers only the central city area). The city's motto is "Vires acquirit eundo" which means "we gather strength as we go." Melbourne was the capital city of Australia from 1901 until 1927.The city was named after the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose home was near the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. Melbourne in Derbyshire derives its name from the Old English for Mill Stream (Mylla Burne) Melbourne has twice ranked first in a survey by The Economist of The World's Most Livable Cities on the basis of its cultural attributes, climate, cost of living, and social conditions, once in 2002 [1], and again in 2004. In 2005, however, it was ranked 2nd, behind Vancouver, Canada. The US's Utne Reader puts it thus: "Add a long tradition of civic pride, communities of new immigrants from around the world, and the best food in Australia, and you have a recipe for what many claim is the hippest city in the Southern Hemisphere" (Nov/Dec 2001). Melbourne has undergone a major urban 'revival', such that it is sometimes classed as being in a second tier of "world cities"; the GaWC study group in the UK ranks Melbourne, on the basis of relative availability of specialized "advanced services" as a "minor world city" comparable to cities such as Montreal, Osaka, and Prague. It has one of the highest numbers of international students studying in its universities, after London, New York, and Paris. A resident of Melbourne is referred to as a Melbournian.
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