New track to blame for Silverstone cancellation

FEARS over Silverstone’s new surface materialised yesterday when the British Grand Prix became the first MotoGP race to be cancelled due to unsafe track conditions since 1980, leaving the home of motorsport facing embarrassment over their multi-million pound resurfacing.

Silverstone owners, the British Racing Drivers’ Club, decided to fully resurface the track in February this year in order to remove the bumps that affected last season’s MotoGP race.

But after criticism over the weekend that the bumps were worse than ever, causing the bikes to aquaplane at speeds approaching 200mph, Sunday’s race action was completely washed out, with MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 all cancelled as well as the British Talent Cup support race.

MotoGP race director Mike Webb held an extraordinary press conference after a decision was taken shortly after 4.00pm to call off the race, and explained that the new surface was to blame for the cancellation, given that racing has been possible in similar conditions at Silverstone in the past — most recently in 2015.

“We’ve had a number of years experience here in wet conditions recently with the old surface and we’ve been able to run races,” Webb said. “This year with the new surface is the first time that we’ve encountered quite so much standing water in critical places on the track. So yes, it’s a direct result of the track surface.”

Having been criticised by a number of riders on Saturday following the rain-affected free practice session, plenty of scrutiny was on how the track would hold up on race day with a deluge of rain expected throughout the day.

Saturday’s final practice session was red flagged when rain at the Stowe corner caused a number of riders to aquaplane off the track and into the gravel trap, where Avintia Ducati rider Tito Rabat (above) was hit by Franco Morbidelli’s Marc VDS Honda and Alex Rins was seen to jump off his Suzuki at well over 100mph to avoid hitting the tyre barrier.

Rabat underwent successful surgery on Saturday night on fractures to his femur, tibia and fibula at the nearby University Coventry Hospital where he will remain under observation for the next few days.