MotoGP's British Grand Prix

Team bosses are now huddled with Dorna's Carlos Ezpeleta, race director Mike Webb, and safety representative Franco Uncini, likely discussing whether they can start this race right now and how long it would run.

Pole-sitter Lorenzo has arrived at the grid, and he looks less than impressed with the track conditions out there. This is a very tense atmosphere even by the usual MotoGP pre-race standards.

A reminder that, for full points to be awarded, we need to reach two-thirds distance: in other words, 14 laps of 20. If the rain gets any worse, it would come as little surprise to see red flags waving.

The riders are out on their sighting laps, and in fact Alvaro Bautista has already run into the gravel at Vale corner on his Nieto Ducati! It certainly looks treacherous out there, but not unraceable.

That drama delayed qualifying, which was held in the wet, but when the dust finally settled it was Jorge Lorenzo who took pole, leading Ducati stablemate Andrea Dovizioso.   You can catch up on all the action from that session with our full qualifying report.   

MotoGP Silverstone: Lorenzo leads Ducati one-two in qualifying

Jorge Lorenzo grabbed his second pole of the MotoGP season in a rain-affected and delayed British Grand Prix pole shootout at Silverstone, leading a Ducati one-two ahead of Andrea Dovizioso

That incident unfortunately resulted in Tito Rabat being taken to hospital in Coventry after being hit by Franco Morbidelli's bike. The Avintia Ducati rider suffered a triple fracture to his right leg, and underwent surgery the same evening.   

Avintia MotoGP rider Tito Rabat to undergo emergency surgery

Avintia Ducati MotoGP rider Tito Rabat is to undergo "emergency surgery" on Saturday evening after suffering a broken leg in an impact with Franco Morbidelli's bike at Silverstone

Hello and welcome to Autosport and Motorsport.com's live coverage from a rainy Silverstone for what will hopefully be the 12th round of the 2018 MotoGP season.

If you're wondering why we're starting our coverage so early, it's because the threat of rain prompted a rethink of the schedule. Instead of starting at 1300 as planned, we're set to get underway at 1130, with the Moto3 and Moto2 races following after that - weather allowing.

It's been raining fairly steadily most of the morning, the heavens opening not long after the conclusion of the morning warm-up session, which was held on a dry track. But it's certainly not as heavy as it was at the end of FP4 yesterday, when we saw a nasty multi-rider incident down at Stowe.