Saudi Arabia's sports minister - We would cancel the race if there was a genuine threat

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's minister of sport, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal, said his country would not have hesitated in cancelling this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix if it felt there was a genuine security threat to the event.

Formula One's 20 drivers came close to boycotting the race in the early hours of Saturday morning after a missile attack on an oil depot 10 km east of the circuit raised concerns about security at the venue.

A military spokesperson for Yemen's Houthis, which have been battling a coalition led by Saudi Arabia for seven years, claimed responsibility for the attack on the facility, which is run by state-owned energy company Aramco.

On Friday evening the Saudi Arabian government and security services offered assurances to F1, its teams and drivers that the race was not at risk of a similar attack.

«If there is a threat, then rest assured we will cancel the race, but there is no threat and that's what we discussed with everyone,» Prince Abdulaziz told reporters in Jeddah on Saturday evening.

He added: «All the security agencies, all the highest alert of security in terms of safety for any of the threats just like what happened yesterday [Friday]. Everyone is on 24-hour surveillance, I would say, in terms of where the threat could come from and what to do to action that.

»We did have the security levels very high hosting such an event and we know it's recognised as the limelight because the media is here, everyone is here. We did realise that from the beginning. And if you see the hit that happened, it's on the outskirts of the city, no casualties and it's on a fuel tank that was burning."

Prince Abdulaziz said it was not possible to protect all of Saudi Arabia from missile