India’s reputation for hosting major international sporting events was severely dented by problems surrounding last year’s Delhi CWG, and the inaugural Grand Prix of India hasn’t done much to improve matters.
The country’s tryst with the high-octane world of Formula One turned into embarrassment Friday as the first practice session had to be stopped briefly when a stray dog intruded into the circuit at Turn 10 and Michael Schumacher was quick to evade it. Track marshals had witnessed another dog earlier before the session even started. It was a major lapse: the consequences could have been serious had the car hit the animal. Drivers were clocking an average of 210 kmph.
As the motorsport fraternity is yet to recover from the fortnight’s double tragedy of Dan Wheldon’s fatal accident in the IndyCar finale and Marco Simonelli’s death during the Malaysian MotoGP, the stray dog incident has come as a big concern for the drivers here.
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, however, brushed aside the incident as “quite normal”. “These things happen ... and it’s not a big issue. Better if we don’t have dogs at all,” Ecclestone said. Track owner Sameer Gaur was disappointed at the “dogged start”. He said: “We had foreseen this, with the track placed where it is... We installed proper barricades to stop animal intrusions, but it somehow sneaked in. We’ve deployed more security to catch dogs and take them to a secluded place.”