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95,000 crowd for inaugural Indian Grand Prix

October 31, 2011 09:19 IST

A bevy of dignitaries, filmstars and cricketers were among the 95,000-odd crowd that thronged the Buddh International Circuit to witness the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, in Greater Noida, on Sunday.

Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh were among the cricketers present at the circuit as double world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull blazed his way to the 11th win of the season ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

The film world was represented by Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Gulshan Grover among others.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Devi did the honours to bring the curtains down on a successful event by presenting the winner's trophy to Vettel amid loud cheers at the stands.

Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman of Airtel, the title sponsors, presented a trophy to a Red Bull official for his driver winning the race.

Executive chairman of Jaypee Group, the race organisers, Manoj Gaur, presented the trophy to Button for his second -- place finish, while Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India chief, Vicky Chandhok, gave away the trophy to Alonso.

Being the final race day, Sunday's turnout was 45,000 more than Saturday's qualifying.

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