MANAMA: Force India team pulled out of a Bahrain Grand Prix practice session on Friday after a night of clashes between security forces and protesters in Shia villages that left several people wounded.
“For logistical reasons the team will run a rescheduled programme for the rest of the weekend, which will result in the team missing second practice to ensure the most competitive performance in FP3, qualifying and the race,” the team said.
Earlier, deputy team principal Bob Fearnley told a magazine that they were considering curtailing practice in order to return to their hotel before dark. But they would not miss qualification on Saturday afternoon or the race itself on Sunday.
World championship leader Lewis Hamilton topped the times for McLaren in Friday morning’s opening free practice session, while Force India’s young driver Paul Di Resta, a fellow Briton, was third fastest
Silverstone-based Force India was rattled on Wednesday evening when four of its mechanics, in a car returning to their hotel from the circuit, were caught up in violent incidents involving protesters and the police.
A petrol bomb exploded close to their vehicle and they had to evade tear gas.
The incident prompted one team member, not involved in the incident, and a contractor hired by the team to return home despite official assurances that Bahrain was safe. Nobody was injured.
Fresh violence broke out overnight in Shia villages located far from the race’s Sakhir circuit where practice sessions started at 0700 GMT, and rumbled on until early Friday, witnesses said.
“Eighteen people were wounded” when security forces fired buckshot and tear gas to disperse protesters, said the president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, Mohammed Maskati.
“The people want to topple the regime,” dozens of protesters shouted as they carried pictures of jailed hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. “Down Hamad,” they cried, referring to Bahrain’s king, according to witnesses.
Met by tear gas, sound bombs and buckshot, the protesters hurled petrol bombs at security forces, witnesses said. Maskati said he was a participant in a march in Bani Jamra village where tear gas was fired at activists.
The protests were “a message to those taking part in the F1 race to bring their attention to human rights violations in Bahrain,” Maskati told AFP, adding that “95 people have been arrested since April 14” in the run up to the event.
The protesters burned tyres, briefly blocking several main roads leading to the Sakhir circuit, witnesses said.
They said police cars were deployed in force on roads between the airport and the circuit on Friday. A small armoured police vehicle was seen on the roadside at the entrance to a neighbourhood in Manama.
Amid unease among GP participants, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg said, “We shouldn’t have been put in this position,” while teammate British driver Paul Di Resta admitted it was an “uncomfortable situation.”
But speaking to reporters at the Sakhir circuit, the chairman of the Formula One Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, Pedro de la Rosa, said Thursday that safety was “not a concern.”
He had full faith in the decision by the International Motoring Federation to go ahead with the event despite mounting tensions in the kingdom.