Second Stray Dog Incident in Bahrain

The Sakhir circuit – host of the Bahrain Grand Prix – seems to become the main attraction for the stray dogs nearby. After the Tuesday testing session in Bahrain was interrupted for approximately 10 minutes due to two stray dogs entering the venue, the Thursday meeting benefited from the presence of another couple of stray dogs (possibly the same).

We're not exactly sure about the actual number of stray dogs living in the vicinity of the Bahrain venue, but they do seem to enjoy the F1 action at Sakhir. The incident was reported by the Ferrari official site. In the Scuderia's Thursday test report, it said the session was no longer red-flagged by the circuit officials, who only advised the drivers to pay attention when driving.

“The Sakhir circuit seems to have become the preferred spot for the straying dogs of Bahrain. In the afternoon a couple of dogs went out on the track and it might have been the one from yesterday. Today the stewards didn't get out the red flags, but warned the drivers with the yellow flags to pay attention so the session was not interrupted,” said the Ferrari report.

The incident comes only one day after Sakhir's circuit operations director Mark Hughes assured the media that the circuit is constantly being checked for animal incursions throughout the day.

“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,” argued Hughes.

There were two such incursions during the course of this week. The one that occurred yesterday, however, did not lead to any alteration of the teams' testing programmes.