Silverstone’s layout – especially the trade-mark to-and-fro swerves early in the lap between Maggots and Chapel – combined with hard-paved run-off areas there tempted many riders to take short-cuts through the section, whether to abort a lap or save a potential crash.
Nowhere more than in Moto3, where at times whole packs of riders would follow one another across. This caused much confusion with lap times, since the short cut could save up to a second.
As a result, Moto3 qualifying results were delayed by more than an hour while officials sifted through a record number of laps disallowed for “exceeding track limits” – no less than 139 laps were cancelled, with riders frequently running on straight across the famous to-and-fro sections after the first two corners, often in big groups.
By Michael Scott
Pit lane marker, British MotoGP 2017