• Bahrain Grand Prix

Force India members leave Bahrain

Violent clashes continue to occur between anti-government protestors and police © Press Association

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Two members of the Force India team have been allowed to leave Bahrain following an incident outside the circuit on Wednesday night.

Four mechanics were returning to the team's hotel shortly after nightfall when they were delayed by a clash between protestors and police on the main motorway back to the capital to Manama. In the incident a petrol bomb landed near the team's hire van, but nobody was injured and the vehicle was not damaged.

"One of our vehicles was momentarily caught up in some disruption on the way back from the circuit last night," a team spokesman said. "Our van was not the target but arrived on the scene on one of the main highways. Within a few minutes the traffic continued moving and the van returned to the hotel. Everyone in the van is okay."

The mechanics were not travelling in team kit and had not been targeted by the protestors, but the incident was enough for two other team members to request they be able to leave Bahrain.

The chairman of the Bahrain International Circuit Zayed R Alzayani dismissed the incident as an "isolated" one, and stressed that the team was not being targeted as there were a number of other cars involved.

"It was an isolated incident, and my wife was involved too,' he said. "The protestors were not targeting the cars, they just happened to be there. Nobody was injured. I don't command the police; they know what to do better than I do. I have a race to run."

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