Official anti-government demonstrations are planned for 4pm in the vicinity of
Karrana and Abu Saiba, both to the west of Manama but on one of the routes
back into town, while another demonstration is planned 2km away from the
circuit.
One youth activist group has called for three ‘Days of Rage’ to begin on
Friday, timed to coincide with the presence of Formula One in the region.
Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg said on Thursday that the sport should not
have come, although he stopped short of calling for an 11th hour
cancellation.
“We shouldn’t have been put in this position,” the German
said. “It is obviously not right that that sort of stuff happens.
“We are here to race. The F1 business is about entertainment and these
sort of things should not really be happening to us.
“Whether it is right or not I don’t really know. It’s difficult to say. I
am not a politician.
“It is not good that we have to worry about it: that is the way it is now
and let’s see and hope that the rest of the weekend is good and calm.”
However, former driver Martin Brundle, now a commentator for Sky Sports,
said he believed it was right that the race went ahead.
“In many ways, I’ve never seen Bahrain looking better,” Brundle
said. “Clearly, there is some trouble out there, but I’ve not seen any
of it.
“Some journalists have gone looking for it and unfortunately the trouble
found Force India.
“My view is this: F1 can’t run away from this. The race is scheduled and
it would be weak of F1 to do that and it [running away] would create
problems in other parts of the world we go to.
“If I were in charge of F1, I would have made the same decision to come
here and race. I think we’re doing the right thing.”