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Ecclestone hoping for 2017 night race at "super" Baku

Bernie Ecclestone says there is little he would change at Baku for next year, although he reiterated his desire to make the European GP venue into a night race.

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid leads at the start of the race

Photo by: XPB Images

Bernie Ecclestone
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari SF16-H
Romain Grosjean, Haas F1 Team VF-16
Jenson Button, McLaren MP4-31
(L to R): Azad Rahimov, Azerbaijan Minister for Sport with Bernie Ecclestone

The Formula 1 supremo also says that he believes the Azerbaijan event has set a standard for others to match.

"Not really," he said when asked by Motorsport.com if he would do anything differently with the Baku street track in 2017. "We need to have a good think about it, but I don't think so.

"They could open the streets a bit more. They're going to do that for sure. This year was difficult, because they didn't know.

"I'd like to see a 7pm start. We'll find out, they're looking at it."

He added: "It's super, very, very good. If all the places that we go to made the effort that these people have made here, it would be fantastic, they've done an incredible job.

"The circuit's turned out to be really good as well. When we laid out the circuit, there were one or two ways we could have changed it, but I wanted to go past the old castle. It looks good."

The race promoter has estimated the cost of lighting at €20m, and it would add to what is already a build and take-down process of more than six months.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone downplayed teething problems with kerbs and so on that disrupted the schedule on Friday: "This is prototype, this is the first race."

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