THE global debut of the A1 Grand Prix series at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit at the weekend has been hailed a massive success by the track’s owner MotorSport Vision.

About 72,000 people filled almost every corner of the 340-acre circuit in scenes reminiscent of the last Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix held at the famous circuit back in 1986.

Around 46,000 of those visitors were present on Sunday to watch the first two races of the brand new A1GP series.

The A1GP races provided plenty of stunning spectacle as well as some fantastic racing, especially in the 38-lap feature race.

But it was Team Brazil and its driver Nelson Piquet Jr who triumphed in both races – 22 years to the day after his father Nelson Piquet Sr won the European Grand Prix at the track in a Brabham-BMW F1 car.

Adding a further twist, that race back in 1983 was also the race in which Jonathan Palmer made his F1 World Championship debut for the Williams team. Now, Palmer is chief executive of MotorSport Vision.

He said: "The event went superbly well. Right from the beginning of our dealings with Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, I felt that his vision of the A1 Grand Prix series would be one that captured the imaginations of motor racing fans from all over the UK and Europe and so it proved.

"We have worked very hard to make A1GP’s world debut at Brands Hatch a huge success – it really has been all hands on deck at the track, right from the work to obtain the FIA Grade 2 licence we needed to run the event to the staff around the circuit who served food, drink and generally helped the event go with a real bang."