Photo credit: Oana Popoiu/F1Zone
Despite the predicted rain thousands motorsport enthusiasts gathered in the city centre of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Sunday to see Nico Rosberg and Giedo van der Garde’s Formula 1 demonstrations. The third F1 driver who attended City Racing, Romain Grosjean, experienced huge popularity as fans visited his tent all day long.
Mercedes AMG Petronas’s driver was happy to return to Rotterdam after six years: “Holland is a country where is no Formula 1 race and it’s nice to bring F1 so close to the fans. It’s very exciting because here always lots of people are coming.”
Giedo van der Garde drove a F1 car in front of his home crowd for the first time on Sunday. “It was quite a good fun, I did some doughnuts already”, said the Caterham reserve driver soon after his installation lap. “It’s great to have this event in Holland, especially in Rotterdam.”
Van der Garde believes a Formula 1 track in Holland will be a good idea as Dutch people love motor racing. “We have Zandvoort and I think if they’ll extend it a bit it can be a Formula 1 circuit. That will be fantastic.”
During the event Romain Grosjean signed autographs at his team sponsor Rexona stand and challenged the fans to a Lotus F1 simulator. “I like this kind of events. It’s very nice to be able to bring racing cars and Formula 1 in the city centre, very close to the fans. And it’s a good way to spend a Sunday”, the Lotus driver said.
The eighth edition of City Racing Rotterdam was marked by two unexpected moments. After doing some doughnuts in his last run Giedo van der Garde stopped the car by the VIP tent, jumped out and asked his girlfriend to marry him. A few minutes later a Drift Series car burst into flames during its demonstration. Luckily no one was hurt.
Oh, and for those wondering, she said yes!
