Valencia Street Circuit

This year‘s European Grand Prix will be the 20th race with this name since its premiere in Brands Hatch/England in 1983. This track was the venue for the race a second time in 1985. Two European Grands Prix were held in Jerez/Spain and another one in Donington/England. The Nürburgring was the venue for the European Grand Prix 12 times until 2007 whilst the race has been staged in Valencia in 2008 and 2009 so far.

The region of Valencia is well known to all Formula 1 teams; the Circuit Ricardo Tormo outside the city is a popular test track during the winter. Five weeks before the Grand Prix, the 2010 DTM‘s second race had been staged at that circuit.

After the European Grand Prix Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa have all received penalties from the Valencia stewards for safety-car rule infringements. All nine men will have five seconds added to their final race time for speeding under the safety car during their in-laps prior to pitting following Mark Webber’s dramatic crash in the early stages of the European Grand Prix. In a separate incident, Timo Glock has had 20 seconds added to his race time for ignoring blue flags.