The Unforeseen Consequences of the Bahrain Grand Prix MANAMA, Bahrain - Formula One completed its first day of practice on Friday. Nico Rosberg, the driver for the Mercedes team who won the race in China last Sunday, completed the fastest lap of the day as protesters gathered for further demonstrations around the capital to coincide with the "three days of rage" that uprising leaders have called for during the three days of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Grand Prix weekend is supposed to culminate in the race on Sunday afternoon, but the atmosphere in the Formula One paddock is that no one is quite sure where, when or how the anti-government demonstrations will culminate. So far, after most of the Formula One team personnel and media arrived in Bahrain on Thursday, there have been no injuries, but some genuine terror as team personnel have been caught up in incidents. Four mechanics from the Force India team were in a van that was the target of a Molotov cocktail on Wednesday night. On Thursday night, a bus with 12 members of the Sauber team drove to the side of the road after seeing a burning bottle in the road, and then sped off when the team members saw masked men running up to the bus. The Bahrain International Circuit promoters had said there were no problems with safety in Bahrain, which is why the International Automobile Federation and the series" promoter, Bernie Ecclestone, decided to go ahead with the race. But many people in unofficial positions and journalists had expected the possibility of trouble from well before the F.I.A. gave the green light a week ago today in China: News reports from Bahrain showed so much violence and anti-Grand Prix sentiment among anti-government demonstrators that it seemed obvious that there would be trouble somewhere, somehow, for Formula One personnel. Today, the Force India team took part in only the morning practice session and left the circuit early, as they had Thursday evening. In a news release the team said that they were not taking part in the afternoon session for racing performance reasons. Two Force India employees, in fact, had already decided Thursday to return to Europe and avoid any further possibility of being involved in an "isolated incident," as the circuit called Wednesday night's attack. Since arriving in Manama early Thursday morning, I have not been involved in any threatening or dangerous situation. The city is calm and looks normal. There was no extra security on the way to the track or at the track on Thursday, but there were police checks and military vehicles surrounding the circuit on Friday. But the one thing that I have realized, little by little, during the weeks leading up to this event, and while in Bahrain, was something I least expected from the media circus surrounding the race. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post here on Rendezvous about how the race promoter - the government of Bahrain - was trying to use the race for political ends, using a slogan of "Unif1ed - One Nation in Celebration," hoping that the race would at once draw the people of the country together and also show off the country as being peaceful and open for business. As I mentioned there, and in today's Bahrain Grand Prix preview feature, this is against the F.I.A. statutes, which state that the organization is non-political. What has become obvious, even ironic, is that it is not only the Bahrain government that is trying to use the power of the Formula One media machine to get out its political message. Each side is trying to use Formula One: The protesters know that if they protest against it and wave flags and placards showing off Formula One cars, they will receive the international media coverage they desperately want. Even the international organizations on the outside pushing for human rights have made a point of raising the issues in conjunction with the Formula One race. Foreign media were not allowed into the country to cover the protests, but the country is now swarming with sports journalists from around the world accepted by the government to cover the race - including from the wire services, whose political journalists were not allowed to cover the protests. The unforeseen effect of this for the Bahrain government is that since the beginning of the uprising in February last year, the country and its problems, warts and all, have never been so strongly in the limelight. The protesters are rejoicing at this fact. Thanks to Formula One, Bahrain is emerging from the shadows of the media coverage of the Syrian revolt. Still, the talk in the paddock this weekend so far has not been much to do with the sport that this event is ostensibly here for. As I point out in my regular preview feature on the history of the race, the Bahrain Grand Prix has been plagued with a certain amount of controversy from the start, in 2004, when there wasn't even a threat of terrorism.