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Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi

Russian F1 racer Kvyat: Organizing Russian Grand Prix in St. Petersburg ‘not a bad idea’

The Russian city of Sochi is hosting the Formula One Russian Grand Prix for the sixth time this year

Daniil Kvyat EPA-EFE/LYNN BO BO

Daniil Kvyat

© EPA-EFE/LYNN BO BO

SOCHI, September 26. /TASS/. Holding F1 Russian Grand Prix in the city of St. Petersburg is not ‘a bad idea’ as the race there could attract more spectators, Russian F1 racer Daniil Kvyat said on Thursday.

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Britain’s Daily Mail reported late on Wednesday citing its sources that the Formula One Russian Grand Prix was likely to change its location, moving from its current racing track in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi to Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg. According to the daily, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with F1 management on holding the race in St. Petersburg.

However, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected on Thursday media allegations that President Putin was holding talks on this issue saying, "No, this is not true."

Kvyat, who is currently in Sochi preparing for the race due this weekend, was not aware that Peskov rejected the reports about the talks and when asked by journalists to comment on this issue on Thursday afternoon replied "why not."

"Maybe it is not a bad idea to have it closer to that region and also it is even more accessible to people from Moscow, St. Petersburg," the Russian pilot of F1 Toro Rosso team told journalists.

"Maybe it will bring some more spectators, which is cool," he continued. "Maybe also more [spectators] from Europe, from Finland, where this sport is very popular."

"It’s not a bad idea. Here [in Sochi] it is very nice, but who knows, maybe in St. Petersburg it would be even better, so why not," Kvyat added.

Ilya Dzhus, a spokesman for Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, announced earlier in the day that the organizers of the Russian Grand Prix, Rosgonki, did not discuss the issue of relocating the F1 race from Sochi to St. Petersburg.

"The current contract on the right to host Formula One races stipulates the staging of the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi until 2025," Dzhus told journalists. "Rosgonki did not discuss with the rights holder the issue of relocating the Russian Grand Prix to another city."

The Russian city of Sochi is hosting the Formula One Russian Grand Prix for the sixth time this year. The race is scheduled to be held on September 27-29.

The contract to include Russia in the calendar of F1 racing for the 2014-2020 period was signed in 2010 in Sochi by the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and former Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone. In early 2017, the contract to hold F1 racing in Russia’s Sochi was extended until 2025.

In late 2014, the Sochi Autodrom was awarded the trophy of Formula One’s best racing track of the year. The Race Promoters' Trophy is a rotating award, engraved with the names of other top F1 tracks dating from 1975.

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