Red Bull's Mark Webber looks forward to leaving Bahrain

Red Bull driver Mark Webber admitted he was looking forward to leaving Bahrain, after the grand prix had taken place amid civil unrest.

The Australian finished fourth in the race, won by Sebastian Vettel.

Webber said: "I'm looking forward to getting on a plane. It's time to go back to Europe.

"Yeah, I am pleased the weekend is over. There should be no real celebrations today. We can leave. We saw the size of the crowd today."

Anti-government protests in Bahrain caused the 2011 race to be called off, and a number of teams expected a similar outcome for this year's race amid security concerns.

The FIA had been under pressure to cancel the race by human rights campaigners and politicians in the wake of political turmoil in the country.

Four Force India mechanics were caught on Wednesday between protesters throwing petrol bombs over their car and riot police firing tear gas - an incident that led to two team members asking to return to the UK.

And, on Thursday, 12 Sauber mechanics drove down the hard shoulder of a motorway to avoid traffic when they saw a group of masked people heading in the direction of their car.

Speaking about the weekend's distractions, team-mate Vettel said: "It is not easy. You try to focus on the race, on the car and whatever problems you might face in getting more performance out of the car.

"It's not as if you don't have eyes and ears. You are aware of what's going on. You read the same stuff as everyone else and you see the pictures. All in all, I am very happy and relieved that so far nothing has happened.

"Hopefully we'll have a good pack-up now and get back home safely.

"I think the people here tried as hard as they can to make it as safe as possible, so great thanks to them as well. Hopefully we come back in the future when everything's a little bit safer."