Monza angry as Imola steps up GP bid

May 26 - A Monza official has hit out at Imola, the former San Marino grand prix host that is reportedly shaping up as an alternative venue for Italy's annual F1 race.

With negotiations between Monza and Bernie Ecclestone about 2017 and beyond still dragging on, officials at Imola - a famous circuit east of Bologna - have already had sit-down talks with the F1 supremo.

Now, Italian reports suggest Imola circuit president Uberto Selvatico Estense has followed up his recent meeting with a letter to Ecclestone.

"This is a disruptive action in the final stage of negotiations to rescue the grand prix at Monza," a furious Angelo Sticchi Damiani, the Italian automobile club chief, said.

The German news agency SID claimed that Monza is now just EUR 2 million short of Ecclestone's demands for a new contract costing 25 million per year.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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