Bahrain Grand Prix organisers still hope to reschedule their Formula One race this year, despite the ongoing unrest in the country.
The race in Bahrain was scheduled to be the F1 season-opener on March 13, but was cancelled in February by Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The F1 season began, instead, with the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 27.
The Federation Internationale l'Automobile (FIA) has given Bahrain's federation until May 1 to decide if a new date can be set this year.
Sheikh Salman bin Isa al Khalifa, the Bahrain International Circuit chief executive, told the Bahrain News Agency yesterday that no decision on a new date had been made.
"We are in constant contact with concerned authorities to reschedule the Bahrain Grand Prix 2011," Sheikh Salmanbin Isa al Khalifa said. "Now that security has prevailed and normal life has returned to Bahrain, thanks to the wise leadership, we are stepping up contacts to host the race anew."
In Shanghai, the comparisons with Michael Schumacher at his most dominant will only get louder if Sebastian Vettel completes a season-opening hat-trick in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix.
After runaway wins from pole position in Australia and Malaysia, Red Bull's 23-year-old world champion returns in confident mood to the Shanghai circuit, where two years ago he handed the team their breakthrough first Formula One victory.
Another triumph on Sunday would be the German's fifth in a row extending back to Brazil last year and making him the first driver to win the opening three races of the season since Schumacher with Ferrari in 2004.
"Tyre usage will be extremely important again so we will see," Vettel said at Sepang last weekend. "Last year we suffered some reliability issues at this stage, this year we did not. I think we made a big step forward.
"Things are moving quickly and there's a lot of things we have to work on. We try to take that momentum we picked up after race one and race two into the next grand prix but step by step."
