A1GP news

Swine flu forces cancellation of Mexican rounds

29 April 2009

The A1GP season-ending meeting in Mexico has been cancelled after the recent discovery of the swine flu pandemic. Mexico City, home of the race previously due on 24 May, is the epicentre of the virus which has claimed 159 lives in the country's capital with another 1,300 people currently under observation.

Naturally, with the illness circulating rapidly, a shadow was cast upon the season-ending event which was scheduled to take place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. "Obviously we are keeping a watch on the ever-changing situation in Mexico with the outbreak of swine flu," A1GP Chairman Tony Teixeira had said. "While we will not do anything rash to jeopardise the final round of Season Four, we do have to think of the safety of, not only all members of the A1GP community, but also the members of the public who come to watch us in their thousands in Mexico City.

News soon after confirmed the unsurprising calling off of the season's final meeting, which had only received official confirmation on 31 March. "To say we are disappointed to have to make this call is an understatement," Teixeira said in a fresh statement, after advice from the UK Foreign Office helped made the decision.

"When the news of the health problems broke last week we made sure we kept ourselves up to date with the latest information. It soon became obvious that this was not an isolated health risk and, when the UK Foreign Office put out its advisory and the World Health Organization raised the level of influenza pandemic alert, that was when we had to make our decision. We must have the safety of all members of the A1GP community, as well as the thousands of loyal fans in Mexico City, as our prime concern." He continued to explain that significant amounts of money would also have been wasted had the cargo for the event been flown to the venue, only to return home again without races taking place.

Therefore, in a dramatic twist, Season Four of A1 Grand Prix will now be decided at Brands Hatch this weekend in a three-way shootout:

Switzerland will win the title if the following cases BOTH happen:

- Ireland scores less than 3 points or Switzerland outscores Ireland by at least 2 points
- Portugal scores less than 7 points or Portugal doesn't outscore Switzerland by more than 2 points

Ireland will win the title if the following ALL happen:

- Ireland scores at least 3 points
- Ireland doesn't lose more than 1 point to Switzerland
- Ireland doesn't lose more than 4 points to Portugal

Portugal will win the title if the following ALL happen

- Portugal scores at least 7 points
- Portugal outscores Switzerland by at least 3 points
- Portugal outscores Ireland by at least 5 points

Note: if scores are tied Ireland needs to have better tie-break results - presently Switzerland has four wins to Ireland's three, and Portugal's one

Meanwhile, with the amount of travelling involved in motorsport, the entire community is worried over the outbreak which had already seen cases outside of Mexico in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, UK, Spain, Israel and Germany plus more suspected cases as far off from Mexico as South Korea.

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