VOL. 55 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 28, 2018 P59
cause of the way the water didn't run off."
The same problem after a very local deluge had
caused several riders to aquaplane off the track at
the end of the straight in Saturday's FP4—leaving
Tito Rabat badly injured—and had raised fears of
cancellation.
Overnight earth-works and drainage slots cut in
the track aimed at alleviating the problem, while the
schedule was changed to run MotoGP first at 11:30
a.m., hoping to avoid rain forecast for later in the
day.
But the rain, not heavy but persistent, came early.
"We attempted to start this morning, but it was
not safe. We discussed further plans, but the track
conditions did not improve," Webb said.
The track safety car had circulated for many laps,
and a road-sweeping truck had been employed to
clear standing water, but all to no avail.
The Sunday at
Silverstone was a
non-event and raised
serious questions as
to the British circuit's
capacity to hold a
safe motorcycle race
in the rain.
Webb continued, "We have a number of years'
experience of racing in bad weather on the old
surface. This year is the first time we have encoun-
tered such surface water, so it must be blamed on
the new surface. The track people made enor-
mous efforts. We want to have a British GP and we
have to expect rain…[but] the surface must be able
to handle it."
Race day started off dry for warm-up, with Mo-
toGP first out because of the schedule change mak-
ing them first to race—and Maverick Vinales put his
Movistar Yamaha on top, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso
(Ducati), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) and pole
qualifier Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati).
But rain started just minutes after Moto3 fol-
lowed the big bikes out on track, and the final
Moto2 session was fully wet.
Encouragingly, at that stage, the track was still
