Due to various safety concerns, the circuit was shortened, and the races started behind the safety car, with the Sprint Race was run mostly behind the safety car. These incidents led to questions about the management and organization of both the event and A1GP in general, eventually leading to series' collapse in 2009. Following the incident and the track's lack of funding, the first Chinese race of the season was moved to Zhuhai International Circuit for the 2007-08 season.
The first day of practice was canceled because of safety concerns, as the hairpin at the end of the backstraight was too tight for the cars to negotiate safely due to a 180 degree left turn – resulting in cars were running wide and stopping mid-corner. A revised track layout was devised for an extended Saturday practice session, creating a wider hairpin halfway up the straight, bypassing most of the old straight.[1]
Qualifying
More problems arose in qualifying, when manhole covers on the roads were coming undone due to the racing cars' high downforce and low center of gravity. Grid positions were decided based on practice times, resulting in A1 Team Netherlands driver Jeroen Bleekemolen taking pole position for the Sprint race. Some advertising banners also came loose around the circuit.
Races
Both races started behind the safety car as the first corner was deemed unsafe.
Qualification was cancelled due to track problems. Accordingly, the grid was set from the times set in the 25 minutes of the morning practice session (Practice 3) before it was red-flagged, under article 144 of the Sporting Regulations.
Similar problems have occurred before in China. The 2004 DTM race around the streets of Pudong in Shanghai was hampered by crashes due to manhole covers becoming undone; the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix on the Shanghai International Circuit was interrupted when the safety car had to be deployed when a water runoff drain became open. The same problem also occurred in the Australian V8 Supercarsrace on the same circuit a few months before.
