SILVERSTONE: The British Motorcycle Grand Prix on Sunday was cancelled after heavy rainfall following the MotoGP warm up session which left the Silverstone Circuit in an unusable condition.
The rain continued to pour on Sunday morning, forcing officials to delay the start and then cancel the event for safety reasons.
After several false starts in which a provisional start time for the race was set and then scrapped, a meeting between officials and the teams was convened.
It was quickly agreed that the track was not fit for competition given the high risk on the rain-sodden surface.
Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah said he had no choice but to accept the decision not to race.
"The safety commission decided to cancel the race as it was unsafe," said Hafizh.
"We wanted to race, but there was nothing that we could have done. It’s a pity with the new asphalt, so I hope they solve the situation.
"I really wanted to go out and learn on the GP bike in these kind of conditions.”
The Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider, who qualified a lowly 23rd on Saturday, now hopes to show improvement at the next round in San Marino on September 9.
"I did not do too well in qualifying here. I hope to improve my riding style at the next round, especially from a technical aspect."
MotoGP race director Mike Webb admitted the new surface at Silverstone, which was laid in February, was to blame for making the track unsafe for racing.
“We’ve had a number of years’ experience here in very wet conditions recently with the old surface and have been able to run races,” Webb said.
“This year, with the new surface, is the first time 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.
“The staff have done an unbelievable effort over the whole weekend to try and make the track safe and until the last minute they were still working, but unfortunately we couldn’t battle nature.”
The cancellation of the race came after Tito Rabat suffered a broken leg during the fourth free practice session on Saturday.
Spain’s Rabat, who had come off his Ducati in heavy rain, was walking away in the gravel at Stowe corner when he was hit by Italian Franco Morbidelli’s bike.
The last time a premier class race had to be cancelled outright was the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix, which was called off due to snow, although the 2011 Malaysian GP, where Marco Simoncelli was killed in a crash, was also deemed not to have occurred in the official statistics.
Four-time Moto GP world champion Marc Marquez, who leads the standings, added: “We are very sorry for all the fans, we are the first ones that want to ride but safety is the priority.” — AGENCIES
