MELBOURNE,
Australia — Nearly 420,000 spectators poured into
Albert Park over the
Australian Grand Prix weekend, organizers said Monday, to
set a new attendance record at the circuit, and one of the highest in the
sport’s history.
اضافة اعلان
Melbourne was back on the calendar this year after
missing out in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic and travel
restrictions.
It returned with a bang as fans flocked to the track
to witness
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc win his second race of the year to stretch
his world championship lead.
Organizers said 419,114 people attended over the
four days, eclipsing the previous record of 401,000 set at Melbourne’s
inaugural grand prix in 1996.
A bumper 128,294 watched Sunday’s race, with 55,107
turning up on Thursday just to soak up the atmosphere, despite it being a day
when no Formula One cars took to the track.
The Melbourne numbers topped the 400,000 who
attended last year’s
US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, which was Formula One’s
highest attendance in 2021.
But they were short of the 520,000 who flooded the
1995 race weekend in Adelaide — the last time the Australian Grand Prix was
held there before switching to Melbourne.
Race organizers
put the massive Melbourne crowd down to a combination of a new audience to the
sport attracted through the Netflix series “Drive To Survive”, fine weather,
and fans desperate for high-speed action after missing out for two years.
There was a sea of orange as fans donned the colors
of McLaren in support of local hero
Daniel Ricciardo, who finished sixth.
Ricciardo noted during the weekend it had “always
been pretty wild here” but that “it felt like it was turned up a notch, or two,
or three”.
“It’s definitely a good crazy and there’s a lot of
support and love. I think everyone’s just stoked to have the race back,” he
said.
Australian Grand Prix chief Andrew Westacott
described the weekend as “the happiest sporting event” he had ever been to.
“We were instilling the mojo back into Melbourne,” he told
local radio after the city went through tough years with lockdowns and other
COVID-19 restrictions.
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