Ecclestone stands firm on Bahrain Grand Prix

FORMULA 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has rejected a last-ditch plea for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix to be cancelled.

In the build up to the race, protests in a number of villages across the Gulf island kingdom continue on a daily basis. On Tuesday, marches took place in Barbar, Salmabad, Karbabad and Sitra, as well as one on the outskirts of capital Manama.

Bahrain’s history on human rights prompted four non-­governmental organisations to this week write a letter to Ecclestone, the teams and their sponsors calling for a rethink on their commitment to the race.

In directly responding to that via a letter of his own, Ecclestone was short and to the point in dismissing their calls for a cancellation.

In the letter, Ecclestone wrote: “It is a great shame that this was not brought to me before September 2012 when the FIA Formula One World Championship calendar was formed and it is now too late to make any changes to the calendar.

“I have not received any complaints from any journalists concerning their accreditation to this year’s event.”

Protests are scheduled to continue over the next few days ahead of the race on Sunday.