SILVERSTONE SORRY AFTER BRITISH GP AXED

SILVERSTONE: Silverstone circuit organisers apologised to Motogp fans after the British round of the championship was cancelled due to heavy rain making it too dangerous to race.

“I am so sorry,” said managing director Stuart Pringle in a video statement, promising to contact all ticket holders during the week. “In the end the riders felt that the conditions were not going to be right today to race at all and they made the decision not to race.”

Organisers had repeatedly postponed the start, having brought it forward to allow plenty of room for manoeuvre, before accepting there was no possibility of beating the bad weather. Lewis Hamilton may have cut a deal with the clouds.

Over the last five races of this Formula One season, we have witnessed — over sector-times and practice sessions — the increasing pace of Ferrari engines. This advantage hasn’t translated to a proportionate number of wins though, thanks to poor strategic calls and driver errors. Ferrari’s biggest foe, however? Rain.

The single-minded engineering of current F1 cars ensures that the fastest car — the one most capable of generating speed in a straight-line — is rarely the best in conditions that require it to be driven slowly. Two races ago, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel spun out while leading the German Grand Prix, failing to negotiate the rain lashing the track and allowing a resurgent Hamilton to inherit victory. In Belgium, Ferrari had led every practice session and two qualifying sessions when rain struck in Q3. Hamilton took one of the year’s most unlikely pole positions, while Vettel scrambled his way to second place.

Cue the déjà vu. Last year, when Vettel had tried to slingshot past Hamilton on the same gorgeous Belgian track of Spa-francorchamps, he was thwarted both by the British driver brilliantly ensuring Vettel didn’t get an optimum slipstream, and by the Ferrari’s