As expected, it was announced today that the Bahrain GP scheduled for March 11-13 has been cancelled. It had been expected that Bernie Ecclestone and/or the FIA would make this decision sometime in the next few days but the event organizers beat them to it.

The statement says: “The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) today announced that the Kingdom of Bahrain would withdraw from hosting this year’s F1 Grand Prix race so that the country can focus on its process of national dialogue.”

It has not yet been announced whether or not the event will be rescheduled but with 20 events planned for this year there are not that many possible free weekends to choose from. A date in late November between the Abu Dhabi and Brazilian events has been mentioned but nothing has been decided.

Following a week of protests and an overnight crackdown which left four dead and hundreds injured, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has stated that the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix could be cancelled if the situation does not improve. The event is scheduled to be held on March 13th but with pre-season testing planned for two weeks from now a decision is expected by the middle of next week.

On a related note, it was announced today that this weekend’s GP2 Asia event to be held at the same Sakhir circuit has been cancelled.

Nick Heidfeld will replace the injured Robert Kubica at the Lotus Renault GP Formula One team. Despite his hopes of returning before the end of this season, Kubica, who is recovering from injuries sustained when a rally car he was driving crashed into a wall last week, is unlikely to return this year.