Grand Prix racing returned to Silverstone last year after a gap of 23 years. The first Grand Prix to be held at Silverstone was in 1977, and below are some interesting historical facts and statistics from the GP events held at the circuit:
Before moving to Silverstone in 1977, the British round of the world championship had been held on the Isle of Man TT circuit since 1949. The move from the Isle of Man was made for reasons of rider safety.
The Grand Prix was held for ten successive years at the Silverstone circuit, before moving to Donington Park.
The original circuit layout used for the Grand Prix between 1977 and 1986 was 2.93 miles long (4.71 km) and the lap record was set by Kenny Roberts in 1983 at an average speed of 119.5 mph (192.2 km/h).
Suzuki factory rider Pat Hennen won the first ever 500cc GP held at Silverstone from fellow American Steve Baker riding a Yamaha. This was the first ever one-two finish for American riders in Grand Prix racing.
After a race long battle, just 0.03 seconds separated Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene in the 500cc race at Silverstone in 1979. This is the closest recorded
finish for a 500cc race in the era when timing was done to the nearest hundredth of a second.
In 1979 Honda debuted the NR500 four-stroke challenge to the established 2-stroke machines in the 500cc class. The bikes were ridden by Mick Grant and Takazumi Katayama. Grant crashed at the first corner and Katayama completed a handful of laps before retiring. Freddie Spencer rode an updated version of the NR500 at Silverstone in 1981 and ran as high as fifth place in the race before retiring with mechanical problems.
Kork Ballington and Angel Nieto are the two riders with most GP victories at Silverstone, each having won there on six occasions.
Ten British riders have finished on the podium across all the solo classes of Grand Prix racing at Silverstone: Barry Sheene (1978/500cc/3rd, 1979/500cc/2nd), Tom Herron (1978/250cc/2nd, 1978/350cc/2nd), John Williams (1977/350cc/3rd), Steve Manship (1978/500cc/2nd), Mick Grant (1978/350cc/3rd), Clive Horton (1978/125cc/2nd), Keith Huewen (1981/350cc/2nd), Andy Watts (1984/250cc/2nd), Ron Haslam (1984/500cc/3rd) and Ian
McConnachie (1986/80cc/1st)
The only British rider to have started from pole at Silverstone, across all solo GP classes, is Barry Sheene - in the 500cc race in 1977.
In the years 1977 to 1986, the Grand Prix races held at Silverstone would have as many as eight riders lining up along the front row of the grid.
Honda and Yamaha Level in MotoGP Wins
The battle between the two big Japanese manufacturers Honda and Yamaha continues in MotoGP. Following Casey
Stoner’s win in Catalunya, the two manufacturers have the same number of wins in the four-stroke MotoGP era:
| Four-Stroke MotoGP Wins by Manufacturer |
| 1. Yamaha |
63 |
(36 x 800cc, 27 x 990cc) |
| 2. Honda |
63 |
(15 x 800cc, 48 x 990cc) |
| 3. Ducati |
31 |
(24 x 800cc, 7 x 990cc) |
| 4. Suzuki |
1 |
(1 x 800cc) |
Colin Edwards Misses Grand Prix of Catalunya
Following his crash in practice for the Catalan GP, Colin Edwards missed out on starting a race for the first time in his Grand Prix career. This brings to an end a sequence of 141 successive Grand Prix starts since making his GP debut riding an Aprilia at the first race of the 2003 season at Suzuka. As shown in the following table, this sequence of 141 successive starts is the third longest of all-time in the premier-class.
Following Edwards’ crash, the rider who now has the longest ongoing sequence of successive starts in the MotoGP class is Andrea Dovizioso, who has not missed a race since making his debut at the opening race of 2008 in Qatar, giving him a sequence of 58 successive MotoGP starts.
| RIDERS WITH LONGEST SEQUENCE OF SUCCESSIVE STARTS IN THE PREMIER-CLASS |
| Rider |
Number of Successive
GP starts |
First race is sequence |
Last race in sequence |
| 1. Valentino Rossi |
170 |
South Africa/2000/Welkom |
France/2010/Le Mans |
| 2 Alex Barros |
158 |
Brazil/1992/ Interlagos |
Dutch TT/2003/Assen |
| 3 Colin Edwards |
141 |
Japan/2003/Suzuka |
France/2011/Le Mans |
| 4 Max Biaggi |
127 |
Japan/1998/Suzuka |
Valencia/2005/Ricardo Tormo |
| 5 Shinya Nakano |
124 |
Portugal/2001/Estoril |
Valencia/2008/Ricardo Tormo |