Season-opening Australian Grand Prix cancelled over virus fears

The season-opening Australian Grand Prix was cancelled just hours before the action was due to start on Friday over fears about the spread of coronavirus after a McLaren team member tested positive.

The decision follows April's Chinese Grand Prix being postponed and with the second race of the year in Bahrain due to be held without spectators, leaving huge question marks over the rest of the calendar.

The race was thrown into doubt on Thursday when McLaren pulled out after one of its team members tested positive for the virus and world champion Lewis Hamilton said he was stunned it was still going ahead.

The employee was among eight Formula One personnel who went into isolation after showing flu-like symptoms typical of the disease this week in Melbourne.

The other seven -- including four from the Haas team -- all returned negative results, organisers said.

It sparked a crisis meeting between the race organisers, the FIA, teams and Formula One promoters late Thursday to discuss whether Sunday's race should go ahead.

"Those discussions concluded with a majority view of the teams that the race should not go ahead," they said in a joint statement just hours before the first official practice session and with fans queueing to get in.

"Formula 1 and the FIA, with the full support of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation have therefore taken the decision that all Formula 1 activity for the Australian Grand Prix (is) cancelled."
- 'A big thing for us' -
=========================
"It's a concern I think for the people here. It's quite a big circus that's come here, it's definitely concerning for me."