Work at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez, which will host this year's Mexican Grand Prix, is on course to be completed in September, according to race organisers.
Mexico has returned to the F1 calendar this year after a 23-year hiatus, with a revised 4.314km layout which retains the character of the famous old circuit. Work has been ongoing since the race return was announced last year and Federico Gonzalez, managing director of race promoter CIE, says this is on schedule to be finished a month before the October 30-November 1 event.
"We are on schedule," Gonzalez told ESPN. "We have completed the first level of pavement around the track and expect to have the other two completed within the next three weeks. We are also working on the last stages of the final grandstand complex. Altogether, we are expecting everything will be completed and ready by September."
The original batch of tickets sold out quickly when they went on sale earlier this year, prompting race organisers to install new stands to increase capacity for the race weekend. Asked how many tickets he expected to have sold overall by race weekend, Gonzalez said "anywhere in the region of 100,000 and 105,000."
"We sold 85,000, 90,000 very quickly and then realised we would need to increase the capacity because of the incredible demand for tickets. We brought in Swiss company Nussli to install some bleachers and these are set to be ready for the race. We are happy these will be completed in plenty of time.
"We are only selling three-day tickets for the event because we want it to be special across the whole weekend, not just the race. The demand we've had for tickets proves how popular we think this race will be, not only with local fans but also with tourists coming to Mexico City from across the world."