Spaniard Fernando Alonso won the first Formula One edition of the Grand Prix, driving for the Renault team amid controversial circumstances, when it emerged a year later that his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. had been ordered to crash on purpose by senior team management to bring out the safety car at a time chosen to benefit Alonso. The race will remain on the F1 calendar until at least 2021, after race organizers signed a contract extension with Formula One Management on the first day of the 2017 event. The previous contract extension was signed in 2012 and lasted until 2017. Since 2008, every race edition has featured at least one safety car, a total of 21 safety car deployments, as of 2019.