Bahrain on fire but race goes ahead - No grand prix on our blood, protestors tell Ecclestone

By Jonathan McEvoy for the Daily Mail

Published: 16:56 EDT, 15 April 2013 | Updated: 17:28 EDT, 15 April 2013

Protestors in Bahrain are campaigning for Sunday’s Formula One Grand Prix to be called off, telling Bernie Ecclestone: ‘You are not going to have your race on our honoured blood.’

But despite five anti- government demonstrations yesterday — and four minor explosions which caused no injuries on Sunday night — there is no chance of motor racing’s most controversial race being called off.

Fanning the flames: activists outside the capital

The demonstrations are confined to villages outside the capital Manama. There is a heavy police presence at checkpoints protecting the city’s central area, where Formula One’s travelling entourage of 1,500 people started arriving on Monday.

Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has promised Bahrain will ‘ensure appropriate security measures are taken during the F1 race’.

Despite predictions of danger, the 2012 grand prix passed without injury to any Formula One member and it therefore seems to be a more relaxed sport that is returning here this year.

A Bahraini man holds a banner against the country's upcoming Grand Prix during an anti-regime rally

That is despite a new radical splinter protest group —Coalition of February 14 Youth — promising to unleash a week-long campaign called ‘volcanic flames’.

It was they who claimed responsibility for the four explosions on Sunday — the most audacious of which was carried out in the country’s business heart, the Bahrain Financial Harbour.

‘A full investigation has been launched,’ said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. National Unity Assembly deputy president Dr Naji Al Arabi criticised the car burnings as ‘criminal acts aimed at destabilising the country’.

Bahraini boys run for cover during clashes following an anti-regime rally in support of political activists held in prison in the village of Jidhafs, west of Manama on Monday

I followed the demonstration that started less than a mile from Pearl Square, the site of the original uprising against the ruling Sunni government by largely Shiite protestors on February 14, 2011.

On Monday the activists, who want democratic reform, numbered about 2,500. Their protest lasted two hours between the end of work and the call to prayer at 6.15pm.

Regular observers of the daily skirmishes said the police were more patient than usual. They refrained from strong-arm tactics against the protestors, some of whom had children with them, and who tried to provoke a fight by burning tyres and  rubbish bins before walking towards the police’s armoured vehicles.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone walks in the paddock before the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday

Both sides seemed aware that they were being watched by a worldwide audience. Police let off only three tear-gas canisters in a response that my guide said was more proportionate than normal.

The race is also coming under threat from cyber- anarchists Anonymous. They hacked into the  formula1.com website  during last year’s race and are promising a repeat.

A message said: ‘We are coming forward this year to wreck your little party again Mr Ecclestone. We will expose the personal data of any person who supports this race in any way. You have been warned. Once the festivities for this race begin in Bahrain, all bets are off.