Rio de Janeiro has given up its controversial bid to build a new Formula One race track and steal Brazil’s Grand Prix race away from Sao Paulo, officials said Monday.
Rio, Brazil’s second city, had hoped to leverage its beaches, nightlife and glamor to wrest the high-profile race away from the concrete jungle of Sao Paulo, the country’s economic capital.
But the project to build a race track in the Camboata forest — backed by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and ex-mayor Marcelo Crivella, his ally — triggered an outcry over its environmental impact.
New centrist Mayor Eduardo Paes, who took office on January 1, lost little time scrapping the plan, which had already run i…
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