SOCHI, December 19. /TASS/. The trophy of the Formula One’s best racing track in the 2014 season was officially awarded on Friday to Sochi Autodrom, which staged Russia’s first ever Grand Prix little over two months ago.

The decision to award Sochi the 2014 Race Promoters' Trophy was made at the annual FIA Gala ceremony on December 5th 2014 in Doha, Qatar and it was officially handed over in Sochi to Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak by F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

“We faced a very important and difficult task,” Kozak at the awarding ceremony. “Simultaneously with the Olympic Games we also had to create the best Formula One track and the best autodrom of the world. Such task would have been achieved by many countries within numerous years, while we achieved it within six years only. This acknowledgement is the triumphant outcome of our work.”

The Race Promoters' Trophy is a rotating award and engraved on it are the names of other F1 best racing tracks starting from 1975. The trophy will remain in Sochi throughout 2015 until the new best racing track will be announced at the end of the next season.

This year Russia held its first ever F1 racing on its soil and the inaugural Russia Grand Prix took place on October 10-12 in Sochi, a coastal resort city on the Black Sea. Over 166,000 people, including at least 500 high-ranking guests from Russia and abroad, were reported to visit Sochi over the racing weekend for the long-anticipated event.

Live television coverage of the race in Sochi, which was provided by Russia’s Rossiya-2 channel, watched 3.4 million people across Russia and it was three times as many comparing with the figure of Russian viewers watching on the average other F1 Grand Prix races.

The contract to include Russia in the calendar of F1 racing for the 2014-2020 period was signed in 2010 in Sochi by then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and F1 supremo Ecclestone. In December the International Automobile Federation (FIA) officially announced the calendar of the 2014 Formula One races, and the Grand Prix in Russia’s Sochi was scheduled for October 12 as the 16th out of 19 F1 Grand Prix races this year.

In its debut operational season, Sochi Autodrom, which has also recently been named ‘Motorsport Facility of the Year’, hosted a number of important international, national and regional events. Besides hosting the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix, Sochi Autodrom will soon launch its Driving Academy that will contribute to the motorsport development in Krasnodar region and Russia.

The 2015 F1 season kicks off on with the Australian Grand Prix on March 15, while Russia’s Sochi GP is scheduled for October 11 as the 17th out of 21 GPs on the racing calendar.