Ferrari Attracts Record Numbers of Visitors to Bavaria City Racing Moscow

MOSCOW, July 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Ferrari has conquered the Kremlin. The racing car of driver Giancarlo Fisichella sent the Moscow spectators into raptures during the fourth edition of Bavaria City Racing Moscow. On the official Formula 1 competition circuits, Ferrari is engaged in a battle for the highest podium, with driver Fernando Alonso as its biggest trump card. In Moscow, Ferrari showed off the technical abilities of their car.

Ferrari's presence in Moscow during Bavaria City Racing turned this edition into a special event. However, former world champion Jenson Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) and Karun Chandhok (Team Lotus) also contributed to an exciting afternoon for the Muscovites, who had gathered around the circuit beneath the walls of the Kremlin. No fewer than 300,000 racing fans lined the streets of Moscow to cheer on the drivers.

As co-initiator, Bavaria looks back on a very successful event. Peer Swinkels, board member of Bavaria, explains: "During the past few years, Bavaria City Racing Moscow has grown into an extremely popular event among Muscovites, while it has also become a respected platform within the motor sport top. It has put the relevance of Formula 1 in Russia on the map again. The Grand Prix has now been awarded to Russia with effect from 2014." Swinkels continues: "Bavaria is of course extremely proud of the fact that it managed to get Ferrari to come to Moscow this year. Ferrari is and remains the crème de la crème of motor sport. Their participation will turn the fourth edition of Bavaria City Racing Moscow into the most sensational edition ever."

The crowd was treated to a complete racing show. The racing cars were initially splashing through the water, caused by the heavy rain and later on the crowd saw the show once again, but then on a sunny circuit.

On behalf of Ferrari, Fisichella drove his car through the streets of Moscow. "It is a great circuit with the Kremlin and the Red Square in the background. The rainy circumstances demanded everything from the drivers and turned the demonstration into a stunning show", said Fisichella. "The crowd went wild and that's what it's all about".

About Bavaria

Bavaria beer brewery is the second oldest family-owned company in the Netherlands. Bavaria employs approximately 1,000 members of staff, at home and abroad. Managed by the Swinkels family, the Bavaria brewery in the south of the country has been brewing beer according to a unique family recipe for seven generations now. This has enabled them to safeguard the best quality since 1719. Pure ingredients form the basis for quality, and that is why Bavaria is brewed from naturally pure mineral water, while the company malts its own barley.

Bavaria is the second biggest beer brewery in the Netherlands, but also the second largest beer exporter of the Netherlands. Sixty-five percent of the six and a half million hectolitres of beer is exported. Bavaria is represented with different products in more than 120 countries the world over. In the Middle East and a number of countries in western Europe, Bavaria is particularly popular for its non-alcoholic products. In addition, as a family-owned company Bavaria has been able to take up a unique position with its specialty beers in a number of western European countries, such as with 8.6 in France.

Bavaria's unique marketing has been attracting attention internationally as well recently. Popular commercials with international stars such as Mickey Rourke, and the Bavaria Moscow City Racing Formula 1 event have also generated a lot of publicity. In terms of marketing, Bavaria manages to grab international attention with surprising combinations, such as the DutchDress campaign (2010 World Cup), a fashionable orange dress for women.

About Bavaria City Racing

Both in Rotterdam and Moscow, Bavaria City Racing has grown into one of the biggest crowd pullers of the past few years. The demonstrations by international racing cars and drivers from the highest racing classes, combined with free admission to the event, brings the top of motor sport unprecedentedly close. Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Vitaly Petrov, David Coulthard, Nelson Piquet Jr., Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil all appeared at earlier editions.

Bavaria City Racing Rotterdam

Bavaria City Racing started off in Rotterdam in 2006. Prominent places in the city, such as Willemsbrug and Hofplein have set the scene for roaring engines and spectacular doughnuts of various F1 cars ever since. After 5 successful editions, Rotterdam now boasts approximately 550,000 enthusiastic fans, making Bavaria City Racing one of the city's biggest crowd pullers. The 6^th edition of Bavaria City Racing Rotterdam is scheduled for 21 August 2011.

Bavaria City Racing Moscow

What many people considered impossible, became reality in 2008: major roads in and around the extremely busy centre of Moscow were closed off for the first edition of Bavaria City Racing Moscow. Since then, Red Square and the Kremlin, one of the heavily guarded places in the world, serve as a surrealistic platform for various F1 teams and other international top classes. It is still regarded as an exceptional event, as evidenced by the media attention in Moscow: in 2010, the event attracted no fewer than 600 international journalists and camera crews to the Russian capital.

Photos and videos are available from http://www.bavariacityracingmoscow.com .

The WORLD FEED of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will be available from 15:15h till 15:30h GMT. Videomaterial is also available on Worldlink: http://www.eurovision.net/worldlink