MotoGP British Grand Prix race start time change due to threat of dangerous conditions

After months of heatwave and partial drought, Silverstone lived up to his reputation for bad weather – and the consequence was a multiple crash at the end of MotoGP’s fourth free practice session, comments from riders that heavy rain predicted for Sunday would make it impossible to race … and ultimately a major rescheduling to try to avoid cancellation.

The MotoGP race was shifted from the usual 14:00 European time (13:00 local) to 11:30 local, the usual time for Moto3. Forecasts were that it would be raining – but that the predicted deluge of 13-16mm would arrive after the end of that race.

The problem was a disastrous full resurfacing that seemed to leave the track not just strewn with more bumps than before (as reported yesterday), but it transpired with incredibly poor drainage.

On Saturday

Heavy rain hit just one portion of the circuit – Turns 7 to 9 at the far end. But the first of these is the trademark Stowe Corner at the end of the Hangar Straight, approached at more than 320 km/h and taken at more than 120.

The short but intense shower had flooded the approach to the extent that it looked, according to Cal Crutchlow and other riders, “like a mirror”.

More importantly, even with wet tyres it caused instant aquaplaning.

Crutchlow had managed to get through, running wide after the front lifted off “in sixth gear. I never even touched the brake.”

Marquez also made it, seeing the confusion ahead, “luckily I closed the gas halfway down the straight. I was very slow, but it was still amazing aquaplaning.

Not so luck, five other riders, with independent Ducati rider Tito Rabat helicoptered to hospital with a suspected broken leg.

The Reale Avintia teamster was just one of five riders caught out.

The first to run straight and jump off in the gravel before hitting the air-fence was Alex Rins (Suzuki), followed by Aleix Espargaro and Jorge Lorenzo, the latter avoiding falling. Then Rabat was down, and had not yet got to his feet when Franco Morbidelli’s VDS Honda came barrelling across the gravel and knocked him flying.

He didn’t get up again, and although conscious he was treated for some time at the trackside before being stretchered away, and thereafter helicoptered to a local hospital with a suspected triple leg fracture, and other possible injuries.

Race Director Mike Webb, under pressure from the Silverstone promoters to run the main event if at all possible, called an emergency meeting with the teams, and the agreed solution was basically “to swap the MotoGP race with Moto3”. This meant the main event would start at 11:30, hopefully getting it done before the heavy rain, predicted by the Met Office to arrive at around d 13:00.

“We saw that in normal rain the track is usable,” said Webb, in a special late-evening press briefing. It was only exceptionally heavy showers that caused flooding problems, and it became “unrideable”.

He had wished to schedule the races even earlier, but the teams required a certain turn-around time between warm-up and the race, and “this schedule was a consensus of opinion with the teams,” he said.

The problems were the consequence of the resurfacing, and while this had in general improved the consistency of the tarmac, the camber had changed at some places, causing problems that had not occurred in heavy rain previously, for example in 2015. “At Turns Seven and Eight, it has changed to the point that water collects. It will have to be fixed for next year,” he said.

The short-term solution was to prioritise the main MotoGP race, hoping to run it without problems; but while the aim was to run a full programme of all three classes, Webb admitted the possibility that either Moto2 or Moto3 might face cancellation.

Apart from the commercial reason to put MotoGP first, there was also the fact that, as had been seen elsewhere, the biggest class suffers the most from aquaplaning because of the wider tyres.

The British GP was already running an unusual schedule, with the MotoGP race in the middle of the programme, to adjust for the time difference.

The updated time schedule puts the 20-lap MotoGP race at 11:30 (AEST 8.30pm) Moto3 (17 laps) at 13:00 and Moto2 (18 laps) at 14:30 – all local time, and all weather permitting.