Bernie Ecclestone vowed yesterday to defy pro-democracy protesters and take Formula One to Bahrain in April as the country marked the anniversary of its “Day of Rage” with teargas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.
His insistence that the race would go ahead came as figures published in London showed that British defence companies continued to sell arms to Bahrain at the height of last year’s crackdown on protesters.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the Bahraini capital, Manama, yesterday to decry the regime’s brutal suppression of activists and the slow pace of promised reforms over the past 12 months.
As the protesters tried to congregate at the Pearl Roundabout, the centre of last year’s uprising, they threw stones and petrol bombs. Armed police