The 2012 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix flags off Friday (April 20) with tens of thousands of fans expected to flock to Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) for the return of motor racing’s pinnacle to the Sakhir desert.
This year’s Bahrain Grand Prix weekend marks the fourth round of the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship. It is being held under the banner “UniF1ed: One Nation in Celebration!”
All of Formula One’s star drivers and teams have already reached the Kingdom and are now all set to get their wheels spinning.
Amongst the last group of Formula One’s talents to arrive Thursday included double World champion Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber, McLaren tandem Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, Ferrari superstar Fernando Alonso, plus the Marussia pairing of Timo Glock and Charles Pic, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen and HRT’s Pedro de la Rosa.
Many of them went right to work in their respective garages at BIC or went out for their customary walk around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix track in preparation for racing.
Hamilton, Kovalainen and Glock were then joined by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg at the official Thursday Press conference organised by the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
Also taking place were preparations all across the circuit and even high up in the air as a Gulf Air plane performed a practice fly-past by BIC’s iconic Sakhir Tower.
Huge crowds are now expected to flock to BIC from Friday to catch the very best of motorsport action all weekend.