MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb said a lack of draining and subsequent standing water was behind today’s postponement of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Speaking alongside Grand Prix Safety Officer Franco Uncini and Safety Advisor Loris Capirossi, after the decision to cancel today’s all three races in at the sodden British circuit, Webb said it was mainly down to the water failing to drain away from the circuit.

“Primarily its due to the water accumulated on the water surface and I think you’ve all seen the results of when we’ve been running on heavy rain that the circuit in some places is not safe because of the way that the water does not drain from the surface,” explained Webb.

“We did everything we possibly could to run an event today, obviously the very last thing any of us want to do is cancel an event. However, safety remains our priority.”

A new surface was laid at Silverstone earlier in 2018 and when asked if the standing water encountered today happened due to the new surface, Webb pointed out that races have previously been run in the wet before and these issues didn’t arise.

“We’ve had a number of years experience here in very wet conditions, with the old surface and been able to run races,” he 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 Formula One race ran in July and many drivers were critical about the surface back then. After the event Uncini confirmed he spoke to Silverstone bosses about the issues and small changes were made to the tarmac.

“They tried to solve some small problems but honestly it was so big that it was so big it was impossible to do,” said Uncini. “The dream was to have a completely new asphalt in between the F1 and MotoGP.”

The decision not to race was made by the riders rather than coming down from Race Direction directly without consultation. Capirossi confirmed that it was almost a unanimous decision not to race from the field.

“We missed just a couple of riders, but the decision is nearly unanimous from the riders to say it’s unsafe conditions to do the race,” he said.

“We say to everybody to come and if riders don’t come it’s their decision to not come. We listen to all riders who are there and nearly all riders have the same decision to stop.”