The MotoGP circus stops off at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix this weekend and BBC Sport and British Eurosport will screen extensive coverage.
As tension mounts in the title battle with just seven races remaining in the 2013 season, thousands of British fans will witness the continuation of the three-way tussle between defending champion Jorge Lorenzo, last year’s runner-up Dani Pedrosa and rookie Marc Marquez.
Silverstone – the home of British motorsport – hosts the twelfth round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship season, a campaign which has provided plenty of talking points and exciting races.
Championship leader Marquez has been in scintillating form and became the first rider to win five races in his debut season with victory at Brno in the previous round.
Home crowd favourite and top British rider Cal Crutchlow will also be keen to put on a show following his two pole positions at Assen and Brno this year.
Crutchlow has secured four podium finishes for Yamaha’s satellite Tech 3 team so far in 2013 and will be hoping to add a fifth to his collection in front of his adoring home fans.
He recently signed a two-year deal to ride for Ducati from next year, giving the 27-year-old a MotoGP factory ride for the first time.
Last year’s British MotoGP was held much earlier in the calendar, with the riders taking to the track in June for round six, and it saw Lorenzo win in dominant fashion, extending his lead at the top of the riders’ standings.
The round is best remembered though for Crutchlow’s stunning recovery drive to finish sixth despite racing with a broken ankle.
Injuries have hampered the Briton’s last two home GPs as he was unable to start in 2011 as a result of a severe accident during one of the practice sessions.
Crutchlow and his fans will be keeping their fingers crossed for a much more smoother and incident-free ride at this year’s event and possibly the chance of becoming the first British rider to win a Grand Prix motorcycle race since the late great Barry Sheene triumphed at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1981.
With the success of Crutchlow and Bradley Smith, British motorcycling has arguably not had it better since the halcyon days of Sheene.
Tributes will be paid to Britain’s greatest two-wheeled racer this weekend with a parade lap to mark 10 years since his death.
It will be a tough ask for Crutchlow to win his home race as to do so he must break the monopoly Spanish riders – Marquez, Pedrosa and Lorenzo – have had on the podium’s top step for much of the campaign.
In the Moto2 series Britain’s Scott Redding, who has announced he will compete in MotoGP next year, has become the first British rider to lead the intermediate class since Tom Herron in June 1976.
Redding leads second placed rider Pol Espargaro by 21 points in the championship with seven rounds to go.
With more than 60 years of colourful history, Silverstone has become one of the most prestigious venues in the world.
Completely revamped during recent years thanks to a multimillion pound investment, the look and feel of Silverstone as a circuit and a motorsport venue has changed significantly.
The new Arena circuit is one of the fastest tracks on the MotoGP calendar and earning high praise from the World Championship riders who enjoyed the new layout.
Who will be the latest winner of one of the sport’s most prestigious races on Sunday? You can find out by watching all the action live across BBC Sport and British Eurosport.
BBC Sport will broadcast extensive live coverage of the 2013 British MotoGP at Silverstone on TV, radio and online.
This year’s race will be the last time Britain’s round of the MotoGP series will be covered by BBC TV as the broadcast rights to the series pass over to BT Sport from the 2014 season onwards.
The live action begins on Friday with the practices sessions live via the BBC Sport website, available on PCs, laptops, via the mobile app and on the BBC Sport app for Connected TVs.
At the weekend, Matt Roberts presents the BBC’s qualifying and race day programmes which will be shown on BBC One and BBC Two respectively.
For Sunday’s live race show on BBC Two, there will be a full one-hour build-up show to the race starting at 1.00pm, plus an extra half-an-hour of post-race reaction.
Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish lead the commentary team, while Azi Farni provides the latest news, interviews and updates from the pit lane.
All the action on BBC network TV will be shown in high-definition on BBC One HD or BBC Two HD, plus the BBC Sport website has live streaming of all BBC televised sessions, as well as the latest news and video from the circuit during the weekend.
BBC Radio 5 live will also be covering the race weekend at Silverstone, including a special preview show on Thursday night (August 29) at 8.30pm.
Jennie Gow, who presented BBC TV’s MotoGP coverage during the 2010 season, will be hosting 5 live’s output alongside former British Superbike champion Tommy Hill.
Friday’s practice sessions will be covered on BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra, while the race itself will feature during Sunday’s 5 live Sport from 1.00pm.
British Eurosport will also have the action covered from the British MotoGP at Silverstone.
Qualifying and Moto2/3 races will be shown live and there will be delayed coverage of Friday practice and Sunday’s MotoGP race.
Commentary on all sessions comes from the popular team of Toby Moody, Julian Ryder, with further contributions from Steve Day and Neil Spalding.
.
Friday 30th August
MotoGP / Moto2 Practice Session (FP1)
LIVE: 9.45am-11.45am BBC Sport WebsiteMotoGP / Moto2 / Moto3 Practice Session (FP2) LIVE: 1.10pm-4.00pm BBC Sport Website
MotoGP Practice Sessions Delayed: 4.45pm-7.00pm British Eurosport 2 Saturday 31st August MotoGP / Moto2 Practice Sessions (FP3) LIVE: 9.55am-11.45am BBC Sport Website
Moto3 Qualifying / MotoGP Free Practice 4 LIVE: 12.20pm-2.00pm BBC Red Button / British Eurosport 2 MotoGP Qualifying | Start: 14:10 LIVE: 2.00pm-3.00pm BBC One / British Eurosport 2 Moto2 Qualifying LIVE: 3.00pm-4.00pm BBC Sport Website / British Eurosport 2
Sunday 1st September Moto2: British Grand Prix – Race | Start: 11:20 LIVE: 11.05am-12.35pm BBC Red Button / British Eurosport MOTOGP: British Grand Prix – RACE | Start: 13:00 LIVE: 12.00pm-2.30pm BBC Two Delayed: 3.30pm-5.00pm British Eurosport 2 Moto3: British Grand Prix – Race | Start: 14:30 LIVE: 2.15pm-3.35pm BBC Red Button / British Eurosport . .
