British MotoGP cancelled due to weather conditions

The British MotoGP has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions and safety concerns at Silverstone with heavy rain causing a washout.

After the MotoGP race start was delayed indefinitely at 11:30 local time – having been pushed forward 90 minutes in a revised schedule organised on Saturday – heavy rain arrived during the Moto2 and Moto3 warm-up sessions.

MotoGP riders went out for sighting laps of the British track to test conditions before reaching the grid, with Alvaro Bautista running off track due to standing water, and following a meeting between team managers and race officials the start was delayed. With forecasts expecting heavy rain to remain for the rest of Sunday, and with no option to race on Monday due to safety requirements, MotoGP officials cancelled the all three races after waiting five hours for conditions to improve.

The races were officially cancelled shortly after a meeting between IRTA officials and MotoGP riders where it was deemed conditions were unsafe to race with the decision confirmed shortly after16:00 local time.

The British MotoGP suffered early fears on Saturday when a heavy shower partly hit Silverstone midway through FP4 which saw multiple riders come off at Stowe. The incident saw Tito Rabat hit by Franco Morbidelli’s Marc VDS Honda bike and sustained multiple leg fractures and had to undergo an emergency operation.

Fears of a lack of drainage on the Silverstone circuit, which was completely resurfaced last year, saw overnight work completed in a bid to improve drainage from the track with the standing water at Stowe corner blamed for the multiple crashes in FP4.

But the heavy rain on Sunday has seen track conditions deemed unsafe with all racing cancelled.

It marks the first time a MotoGP round has been fully cancelled, with all races not run, since since the Austria 1980 round which was canned due to snow.