ALKHOBAR, 4 March 2006 — Hundreds of fans lined up along both sides of the Corniche Road here to see the speed and power of a Red Bull Formula One car over the weekend.

The man who brought cheers to the eager fans was international F-1 driver Robert Doornbos. The 23-year-old professional, who last year-end signed a contract with Red Bull to be part of its team for international F1 events, kept the spectators enthralled during his show of F1 speed and other skills that began late Thursday afternoon.

There were loud cheers as Doornbos wearing the fireproof racing uniform got into the Red Bull F1 car and started off toward the north Corniche road. His return trip took some time. “That was due to a sensor problem in the vehicle,” he told Arab News later. And once that was set, the car, which is fully computerized, seemed to pass the one-kilometer stretch like a bullet. He took time between the rounds that followed, as he had to allow the fan-less engine to cool down. “It’s hot and so I needed time to remove my helmet in between the rounds,” Doornbos said.

Asked what was the maximum speed he touched, Doornbos remarked in a lighter vein: “If I say that, the cops will give me a ticket.”

Policemen, who had stopped the regular flow of traffic on the Corniche for the event, were present in large numbers. Also at the venue were several media cameramen who were busy clicking the action.

Doornbos reduced the speed of his car in the second round. “However, I found the second round more exciting than the first one,” he said.

A 10-member technical team from the Red Bull headquarters in the UK was present with its laptops to prepare the car for the show, which was held with the support of representatives of Supreme Commission for Tourism and the tourism committee of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce.

“I’ve been enjoying Saudi Arabia during my first visit,” said Doornbos in an interview. He was part of the Red Bull team that took part in the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix last year. Doornbos will be the third driver of the Red Bull Racing Team to compete in first round of the 2006 F1 season’s first round in Bahrain on March 12. The first two members of the team are David Coulthard, a 34-year-old Scottish, and Christian Klein, a 23-year-old Austrian.

“Ours is going to be the youngest team competing on the grid in Bahrain,” Doornbos said, adding that the Bahrain F1 challenge is going to be fierce with 20 cars taking part.

Displayed at the venue were some cars with their features modified for power and speed by some Saudi racing enthusiasts. “We want the Kingdom and its sponsors to encourage us to add Saudi power to our racing cars for Gulf championships,” said Hisham Al-Mulla, 33, who comes from a place 55 km from Alkhobar. For about 12 years, he has been a car-racing enthusiast after he was bugged by the speed and noise of car engines and had his well-modified Toyota Sylica on display. “We don’t have a special circuit here and if we don’t get support here, we’ll continue to go to nearby Bahrain, Kuwait and Dubai for racing events,” he said. “We don’t want to go to far away places like Jeddah, even if it has plans for such circuits,” he added.

Certain other racing vehicles on show included Hummer H1, Saleen, Bentley cars and a couple of versions of Ducati motorbikes.