MotoGP to race at Silverstone in 2015 and 2016
Silverstone will host the British MotoGP round in 2015 and 2016, it has been confirmed
Having lost the rights to the event last year, the Formula 1 venue confirmed on Wednesday that an agreement with new rights holder the Circuit of Wales and MotoGP promoter Dorna had been reached to host it again for two more years.
It follows the announcement from Donington Park on Tuesday that it had terminated its agreement to hold the race on the CoW's behalf due to missed payments understood to be related to the hire of the track.
With construction of the CoW yet to begin and a public inquiry due at the start of March, there has been concern that the planned £300m Blaenau Gwent facility would not be ready for next year's race.
Michael Carrick, the project's chief executive, revealed that Silverstone would therefore host the 2016 round as well.
"We are delighted to announce that we have reached agreement with Silverstone to host the 2015 and 2016 British rounds of MotoGP," he said in a joint statement between the CoW and Silverstone.
"We want to thank the new management at Silverstone, our partners at Dorna and our investors for the rapid response needed to support the 2015 event when it became clear that we would be unlikely to conclude the contractual arrangements at Donington.
"We are delighted to secure the future of the event for the next two years while our circuit in Wales is under construction.
"Today's announcement ensures we will have the 2015 MotoGP event in the UK.
"We continue to advance our development activity on the Circuit of Wales and are focused on the upcoming public inquiry into the deregistration of the common land.
"We expect construction to commence once this inquiry has concluded."
The event replaces Silverstone's planned World Series by Renault round, which has been moved to the weekend of September 5-6.
New Silverstone managing director Patrick Allen said: "A lot of work has been done over recent years to ensure MotoGP fans enjoy what Silverstone has to offer and it was devastating for the venue to lose the event last autumn.
"I welcomed the opportunity to meet with both Dorna and the Circuit of Wales recently so that we could try and find a way to keep MotoGP in the UK and racing at Silverstone.
"Two-wheel racing is as much a part of Silverstone's heritage as four wheel racing and I am obviously delighted to be in a position to announce we are hosting both the F1 and MotoGP Grands Prix in 2015."
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