Although the event has been panned in some quarters for a lack of action and overtaking, organisers of the first European Grand Prix have declared themselves 'very satisified' with the event on the streets of Valencia.
While a number of drivers said they enjoyed the challenge of driving on the circuit around the Valencia harbour, the
F1 race failed to follow the lead of some of the support events and proved to be a somewhat subdued affair – with the main talking point occurring in pitlane when race winner
Felipe Massa almost collided with
Adrian Sutil following his second stop.
However, Jorge Martinez Aspar – vice-president of the firm organising the event – said he was pleased with how the event had panned out with his team having received only positive reviews from inside the paddock.
"The overall result is excellent because the image that Valencia has given the rest of the world is spectacular," he said. "We are in a privileged position in Spain and we have taken a great step forward.
"We have brought together over 100,000 people at the circuit. I am very happy because we have proved that there is a project for the future although we still need to deal with some details, but all the comments we have received by the professionals working in F1 are positive."
Aspar however did apologise to a number of fans who purchased seats at turn eleven but were unable to see the track, promising that their claims would be dealt with accordingly, and conceded that there were some improvements to be made before the 2009 running of the race.
"We have to improve some small matters, details, such as some of the curbs and surrounding areas and it is obvious that for next year we want to improve over this year, but we are still very satisfied," he said. "For example, there have not been any problems with access points in spite of the large number of spectators that have come to the Grand Prix."
