British Grand Prix at Silverstone cancelled due to bad weather conditions: MotoGP

Silverstone, 26 Aug 2018: The British Grand Prix, round 12 of the MotoGP World Championship, which was due to be held Sunday, was cancelled due to bad weather conditions at the Silverstone circuit. MotoGP will now head for the next round is the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix, which will be held at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ from September 7 to 9.

After it rained heavily on Saturday and track conditions caused delays, the decision was taken to change the schedule for Sunday and the MotoGP race was rescheduled for 5 pm (IST) (11:30 local time, GMT +1), with the hour chosen according to the latest weather reports available at that time.

On Sunday, Warm Up sessions began at 9:00, with MotoGP out first, and the weather began to steadily worsen. By the time riders were on the grid awaiting lights out for the race at 11:30, they were worse still and the decision was taken to delay the start.

That began a long day of delays, with conditions continually monitored, until a decision was reached: conditions were not safe to race in and the track surface was too dangerous in the rain.

Managing Director of Silverstone, Stuart Pringle, apologised to the fans after the announcement – and says they will get in touch with each of them in the coming days to explain what action will be taken in the wake of the cancellation.

Race Director Mike Webb: “It was obvious the track conditions weren’t safe. After a consultation with the riders, we delayed the start to see if conditions would improve. We have reached the point where even though the rain is getting less, the circuit is still not in a condition where we can safely run races. So, we’ve taken the very difficult and regrettable decision to cancel.

“We’ve had a number of years here in very wet conditions recently with the old surface and been able to run races. This year, with the new surface, it’s the first time we’ve encountered quite so much standing water in critical places on the track. Yes, it’s a direct result of the track surface, I must say from the circuit point of view, the staff have done an unbelievable effort over the whole weekend, not just today, but an enormous effort to make the track safe. Until the last minute that was still working but unfortunately, we couldn’t battle nature.

“The climate of the area means we’ve got to expect rain and the surface has to be able to handle it. They’ve done an enormous job over this weekend to try and improve things, which they have, but the nature of the surface means we’ve reached this point.”

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda #93)

“It has been a long, unusual, tiring day that we hope won’t happen again. The Safety Commission analysed the situation and I think the Race Direction has to be thanked; they listened, and in the end, safety was everybody’s main consideration—one of us riders is in the hospital already. During the day, I watched the screen and saw all the fans in the grandstands patiently waiting; it would have been good to reward them, but in the end, sometimes we must keep a cool head and think.”

Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99)
“Yesterday’s weather forecast turned out to be right and it rained all day today. We only managed to do the warm-up in dry conditions and then it didn’t stop raining and the track was in a bad condition. This confirmed that the asphalt wasn’t draining well and as time went by the situation didn’t improve. When it was late, the riders met with the Race Direction and we decided to cancel the race because the track didn’t offer the right conditions to race in safety.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04)
“It was a real pity not to be able to do the race because we were very competitive, especially in the dry. A weekend that was going well for us turned into an unacceptable situation, and so now it will be necessary to understand exactly what happened. We’ll talk about it in the Safety Commission at the next race, because to resurface a track and then find out it has more bumps than before, together with a problem of drainage, is just not good enough for a championship of this level.”