Repsol YPF

There were only two race weekends that did not see any rain at all last season: the curtain-raiser in Qatar and in San Marino on 31st August. In the rest of the races the riders and spectators all needed umbrellas at some point during the typical three day weekend. Among the worst affected was Indianapolis on 14th September when what was left of hurricane IKE meant that the 125cc and MotoGP races were cut short, whilst the 250cc riders did not even get out onto the track.

However the rain related to the MotoGP category almost invariably fell on the two days before the race which is normally on a Sunday, making it very difficult to set up the bikes for the race. There were only three races held completely in the wet, those in Germany, Laguna Seca and Indianapolis, whilst the races in Estoril and Sepang were only slightly affected.

Rain is an added risk for the riders as their speed sometimes reaches 300km on the longest straights and when they lean their bikes over over at the very limit, defying the laws of physics on each corner. That is why a wet track is a very important factor and one that can influence the result of any race and even the championship because riding in the wet increases the risk of a fall. And if the 2008 season was the wettest in the last decade it was also the one that saw the highest number of falls in the same ten year period, there were a total of 876 falls, a record.

11/4/2008

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