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Russia’s Kvyat confident of his team and results at home F1 GP in Sochi

Russia is holding its FIA Formula One racing Grand Prix on April 29-May 1 in Sochi

Daniil Kvyat Yegor Aleyev/TASS Archive

Daniil Kvyat

© Yegor Aleyev/TASS Archive

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SOCHI, April 28. /TASS/. Daniil Kvyat, Russia’s only racer currently competing in 2016 FIA Formula One Championship, said on Thursday he was optimistic about his team Red Bull performance at the upcoming Sochi Grand Prix this weekend.

"Lately we have been competitive on most of the tracks - doesn’t really matter, any kind really, starting with Australia, Bahrain, China we always looked in quite good shape," Kvyat, who finished in the third place at the China Grand Prix two weeks ago, said.

"I think Sochi also in the past for us maybe hasn’t been the easiest track, as a team, but now we are just coming to any track and we are just trying to extract everything the car has got and I believe also here we can fight for quite strong points," he said.

"We will do our best and I think the car is looking in great," the Russian racer added.

The 21-year-old Russian stepped on the podium two weeks ago in China for the second time in his career. In July, 2015, he was second in Hungary’s Grand Prix.

Discussions continue on switching Sochi F1 GP race to nighttime

The issue of holding the Russian FIA Formula Grand Prix in Sochi during a nighttime has not been closed and is still being discussed, Richard Cregan, one of the most experienced Formula One managers, told TASS on Thursday.

"There were a lot of discussions and Sergey [Vorobyov] had discussions with various people," Cregan said in an interview with TASS.

"I think it is still in discussion as to whether we will have a night race here," Cregan added.

A proposal to switch the Russian F1 Grand Prix in Sochi from traditional daytime to nighttime was first voiced in 2014 by Sergey Vorobyov, the head of the Russian F1 racing promotion company Sochi AutoDrom.

He suggested that in the future years the Sochi GP would turn into a night race, similar to Singapore and Abu-Dhabi GPs. Similar idea was expressed by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, when he first visited Sochi for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2014, and said the city’s infrastructure and sports facilities built for the Games looked great lit up in the night time.

This year Russia is holding its FIA Formula One racing Grand Prix for the first time in spring, namely on April 29-May 1, as compared with the two previous races held in autumn of 2014 and 2015 in Sochi.

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 Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

In late 2014, 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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Formula One Sports F1 Grand Prix in Sochi 2016

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