Christijan Albers, Tiago Monteiro and the Midland Formula 1 Racing team delighted a crowd of approximately 500,000 motorsport fans who converged on the streets of Rotterdam to witness the second-annual Bavaria City Racing event on Sunday afternoon.

Despite heavy rain at the start of the event, both Midland drivers completed 4 laps of the temporary street circuit without incident, unless one includes the exuberant burnouts, lurid slides and doughnut spins that each driver used to punctuate his stint behind the wheel of the M16 race car.

Local hero Christijan Albers, who originally hails from Eindhoven, in the south of Holland, capped off his run on the drying track with an outrageous, nine-rotation doughnut that left the car engulfed in a cloud of tyre smoke for minutes afterward. Upon climbing out of the cockpit, Albers doffed his helmet and threw it into the crowd of appreciative fans.

Albers also found himself pulling executive chauffeur duty today, driving extra laps in the safety car with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Rotterdam Mayor Ivo Opstelten as his passengers.

The street demo wrapped up three days of intensive preparation and publicity for Midland F1 Racing, including last night's "Burning Rubber" gala dinner, which Christijan got off to a raucous start by arriving in no less a head-turner than the M16.

The team is honoured to have been invited to attend the Bavaria Street Racing event and looks forward to being a part of its continuing success.

"Wow, that was just incredible!" said Albers. "I knew it would be fantastic, because I participated in this event last year, but the enthusiasm of the Dutch fans never fails to amaze me. They turned out in record numbers today - in the rain, no less - so I hope they enjoyed what they saw here today. For my part, it was certainly a pleasure to be part of it, and I'm looking forward to more Dutch motorsport events in the future. including, hopefully, a Dutch Grand Prix!"

"What an amazing day!" added Monteiro. "I had such a fantastic time. Rotterdam has an amazing little street circuit and extremely dedicated race fans. It's great that we were able to come here and represent F1. The weather was terrible, which made driving the car quite tricky, but I still had a great time. I would like to thank the race organisers and the people of Rotterdam for the warm reception they gave us here today."