Bahrain police fire on F1 protesters

Just a week before F1 action will kick off in Bahrain, the situation in the island Kingdom is worsening.

AFP news agency said police on Friday fired tear gas and sound bombs on people demonstrating in the capital Manama against the formula one race going ahead.

"Your race is a crime," the protesters reportedly chanted.

1996 world champion turned television pundit Damon Hill earlier this week expressed concerns about returning to Bahrain amid reports the government was rounding up potential protesters in arbitrary house-to-house raids.

But Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost said on Friday: "I don't see any problems going to Bahrain.

"Formula one is entertainment. We should not be involved in politics.

"We should go there, we should do our race, we should be concentrated and the political side and political topics should be solved by someone else," he added.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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