New track blamed for Silverstone MotoGP cancellation

After hours of uncertainty at Silverstone, the British MotoGP did not go ahead on Sunday.

Published : Aug 27, 2018 09:25 IST

MotoGP race director Mike Webb claimed a new Silverstone track was not fit for purpose after Sunday's race was cancelled following heavy rainfall.

More than five hours after it was scheduled to start, it was announced that British Grand Prix would not go ahead.

The race had been brought forward to 11:30am local time due to the weather forecast and a huge crowd waited in the rain a day after Saturday's final practice session had been abandoned due to several crashes, Tito Rabat suffering a triple fracture on his leg.

Race organisers were in the firing line at a news conference after the meeting was called off, with Webb blaming the asphalt surface for the cancellation.

"It is a direct result of the track surface," said Webb. "We had a number of years of experience here in very wet conditions recently with the old surface and we've been able to run races.

"This year with the new surface is the first time we've encountered quite so much standing water in critical places of the track.

"When we've been running here in heavy rain, the circuit in some places is not safe because of the way the water does not drain from the surface.

"We did everything we possibly could to run an event today, obviously the very last thing any of us wants to do is to cancel an event. However, safety remains a priority."

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