Weather conditions prevent medical helicopter from taking off in event of incident, obliging cancellation of sessions on safety grounds.
The opening practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix were cancelled on Friday for safety reasons. Dense mist on track from the early hours of the morning onwards meant that the medical helicopter would be unable to fly in the event of incident, and it was due to this that the organisers decided to cancel the scheduled practices.
Race Direction have announced that practice and qualifying will go ahead tomorrow if the weather permits. In the event of this not being possible, a new schedule will be followed on Sunday, consisting of practice and qualifying sessions for each class before their respective races.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
“There’s not much to say about today ‒we were unable to undertake any practice sessions, which meant we were a little bored. We hope to have better luck tomorrow and be able to go out on track!”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
“There wasn’t much that we could do today due to the weather conditions and therefore we didn’t have a medical helicopter and weren’t able to ride. The forecast for tomorrow is similar, but let’s hope that things improve and we can go on track. If not then we will have to see the proposed schedule for Sunday and how it will work, sure it’s not the ideal situation but it’s the same for everybody!”
