MAY DEADLINE

The World Motorsport Council has given organisers of the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix until May to prove the postponed race can go ahead this season.

The kingdom was to host the opening race of the Formula One campaign last weekend but it was cancelled due to the ongoing civil unrest.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone had wanted a decision to be made on a new date for the grand prix before the season belatedly gets underway in Australia on March 27.

But F1's official website reported that at a meeting in Paris last week the council imposed a May 1 deadline for Bahrain to demonstrate it can go ahead as normal.

Ecclestone suggested the race could be rearranged for August but this has been ruled out due out to extreme summer temperatures.

A move towards the end of the season is now more likely providing the security of the country is back to normal with a date after Abu Dhabi in November for a Gulf double bonanza.

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, decided to abandon plans to stage the season opener after violent clashes between demonstrators and government forces.

The season will now start in Melbourne, Australia with all the teams concluding their programmes of testing in earnest in Barcelona, Spain, instead of Bahrain.

Ecclestone was insistent he wanted Bahrain to stage a grand prix in 2011, as Formula One gears up for its busiest ever season, with 20 races planned. He told F1's official website: "We don't need an alternative race anywhere in Europe or any other place. We need a race in Bahrain. If the Crown Prince is of the opinion that his country is able to host a race we will return to Bahrain."

The Bahrain International Circuit's CEO Shaikh Salman told GulfWeekly: "The Formula One Bahrain contract is being handled by Bernie and the Government but as a venue I look at it differently. My concern is the safety and security of the people here and the guests that would be coming to the Bahrain International Circuit.

"We are still monitoring the situation as that is all we can do. If it is safe to have the race then we will do that. In terms of work, we are still coming to the circuit and doing our jobs.

"I keep telling the BIC team to look at this positively. Just think of it as though we have more time to prepare for the F1 race so let's go over everything and see if there is more to do. We will carry on preparations and wait until matters improve. If the situation improves then I believe it will be a great opportunity for us and a fantastic race."

Meanwhile, F1 is all geared up for the start of the 2011 World Championship in Melbourne on March 25-27. The 12 teams have just completed the last five-day testing sessions of the winter season in Barcelona, and they have now begun their final countdown to the opening flag.

A majority of the final day's testers, however, were disappointed by the amount of track time they achieved, with heavy rains throughout the day costing them some valuable mileage while having the circuit virtually washed out.

It was a completely different scenario from what drivers had to deal with at the beginning of testing, when a majority of them enjoyed over 100 laps in testing distance. Overall testing times during the winter seem to indicate that it will be another heated battle between champions Red Bull and challengers Ferrari for this season's crown, with Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa all amongst the early favourites.

Mercedes GP, with seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher on board, have also shown its potential, especially following the introduction of several new parts to their car in the final days of testing.

There was, however, further disappointment at McLaren, partly owned by Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, who have so far been unable to keep up with the advancements of their fiercest title challengers.

This has prompted their popular British ace and former world champion Lewis Hamilton to state that neither he nor team-mate Jenson Button will have a chance to return to past successes unless a vast improvement is achieved quickly.