Valencia GP future not in doubt

The future of the European grand prix at Valencia is not in doubt, Spanish motor racing chief Carlos Gracia insists.

At the second running of the race around the port city’s streets last August, attendance was so low that it was rumoured Valencia might soon drop off the calendar.

Promoter Valmor’s race contract runs until 2014.

But members of the F1 circus as well as spectators have bemoaned a lack of atmosphere at the venue, and last year’s 57-lap race staged not even a single conventional overtaking manoeuvre.

Within Spain, it has been rumoured that even Valmor have been recently less than enthusiastic about the future of the event.

But Gracia, the head of Spain’s motor racing federation, said he is hearing a different message from Valmor after a recent meeting.

"Last year they were not positive but now they have told me that they are fulfilling religiously all the years they have left on the contract," he is quoted as saying by AS newspaper.