Sakhir Official Explains Stray Dogs Incident

The Sakhir circuit officials have finally brought some light into the stray-dog incident a couple of days ago. As reported by several media channels on Tuesday, the testing session in Bahrain that day was interrupted for about 10 minutes due to some stray dogs entering the venue.

The news was reported by local newspaper Gulf Daily News, whose reporters compared the incident with what happened during the 2008 GP2 Series race in Turkey. Bruno Senna then hit a stray dog that had managed to enter the track during the F1 support race and killed it. The incident was not overlooked by the FIA, who threatened the Turkish officials with severe measures due to the lack of safety measures for GP2 drivers.

However, Sakhir's circuit operations director Mark Hughes insisted the situation is not the same with what happened in Turkey, as the stray dogs did not cross the track on Tuesday. They were seen inside the venue and immediately captured, with the testing session being briefly stopped only for precautionary reasons.

“They were inside the venue, but not in the circuit area. The dogs were seen by marshals before they crossed the track so as a precaution we stopped the session,” said Hughes.

“We have very robust fencing around the venue, which is regularly checked for animal incursions. We carry out regular maintenance checks of the fencing and perimeter and we have very robust communication network around the track,” insisted the official.

Bahrain is scheduled to host this year's Grand Prix between the 24th and 26th of April, as the 4th round of the Formula 1 calendar.