Bahrain F1 Grand Prix to become night race in 2014

The Bahrain Grand Prix will be a night race in 2014.

The Gulf state is trialling a newly-installed light system at this weekend's final round of the World Endurance Championship.
Past Bahrain winners

2004 Michael Schumacher - Ferrari
2005 Fernando Alonso - Renault
2006 Fernando Alonso -Renault
2007 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
2008 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
2009 Jenson Button - Brawn
2010 Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
2011 Race not held
2012 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
2013 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

"There can be no better way for us to mark our 10th anniversary in F1," said Bahrain's chief executive, Sheikh Salman bin Isa Al-Khalida.

Bahrain will be F1's second night race - Singapore has been held after dark since its inception in 2008.

Abu Dhabi is a twilight race - starting in late afternoon and ending after nightfall.

Bahrain is likely to be the third event of the season on 6 April, when the final calendar is announced next week.

Governing body the FIA will reveal the definitive calendar following a meeting of its world council at its annual general assembly, which runs from 2-6 December, culminating in its 2013 prize-giving ceremony, at which Sebastian Vettel will be officially crowned the F1 world champion.

The schedule is expected to be cut to 19 races from the 22 that were listed on the first version of the calendar at the end of September.

A new calendar was circulated to the teams earlier this month, from which the proposed races in New Jersey in the USA, Mexico and Korea were all missing.

The schedule started in Australia on 16 March and ended in Abu Dhabi on 16 November.

Bahrain's Grand Prix has had a troubled recent history as a result of civil unrest in the country.

The race was called off in 2011 following the violent suppression of protests in the capital Manama amid allegations of human rights abuses, including torture, summary execution and wrongful arrest.

The race took place in 2012 despite concerns over safety, which were exacerbated when a Force India team bus was caught in a stand-off between rioters and police on the way back from the track and narrowly missed being hit by a petrol bomb.

Last year's race took place without incident in the midst of a high level of security in the Gulf state.