“They immediately started talking about Sepang or Istanbul,” Popov, the Russian F1 commentator for Match TV, said. I was there for the very first race in 1999,” he said, referring to the popular former Malaysian GP venue. “It was the first ‘Tilke-o-drome’, long before all the others. So if they ask me which track of all the absent ones I would like to see – Portimao, Imola, Nurburgring, all the others – I would always choose Sepang,” Popov added. “If we choose from what we have seen this year, then I hope Mugello, Portimao and the Nurburgring will forgive me but I prefer Istanbul,” he said.

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