Red Bull F1 car races up world’s highest road

In the leadup to the first Indian Grand Prix, Neel Jani, a Swiss driver of Indian origin, raced the Red Bull Formula One show car across the world's highest motorable mountain pass on Monday.

"The route featured 18,830 feet of elevation, and with the air considerably thinner at that height and the terrain somewhat rougher than the manicured circuits F1 cars are used to, the drive represented an impressive engineering and logistical achievement," ESPN F1 reported.

The Indian Grand Prix will be held October 28-30 in Greater Noida, a suburb of New Delhi. 

Though there was some debate over whether the track would be ready, and farmers evicted from their land had threatened to block the event with protests, so far it appears that the event will proceed more smoothly — and more profitably — than the problem-plagued New Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

There are two reasons: One, it's being run by a private company as a profitable venture, not as a government boondoggle.  Two, it's an elite, expensive event, not for the masses, which in India guarantees a sellout.