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MotoGP back at Silverstone

LONDON, England - The Silverstone circuit will stage Britain's MotoGP race for the next two years because Donington Park has pulled out of a hosting agreement.

A joint statement from Silverstone and the Circuit of Wales – the latter holding a five-year hosting contract despite its track being unbuilt - said this year's (2015) race would go ahead as planned over August 28-30.

Circuit of Wales chief executive Michael Carrick said: “We’re delighted to secure the future of the event for the next two years while our circuit in Wales is under construction.”

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Donington announced on Tuesday (Feb 10 2015) the termination of an agreement with the Circuit of Wales because, it said, payment deadlines were not met. The Circuit of Wales (which uses the perhaps unfortunate abbreviation CoW) disputed that, saying it had been unwilling to provide "significant funding" to upgrade the Donington track.

Silverstone, home of Britain's Formula 1 race, hosted the 2014 British MotoGP round after it switched to the central English circuit from Donington in 2009.

Britain has hosted a motorcycle GP every year since 1949, with the Isle of Man TT counting as a round of the championship until 1976, and Silverstone was the only viable option to keep it on the calendar this year.

Silverstone managing director Patrick Allen said it had been "devastating" for his circuit to lose the race contract after 2014 and he welcomed its return. "Two-wheel racing is as much a part of Silverstone's heritage as four-wheel racing and I am obviously delighted to be in a position to announce that we will host both the F1 and Motorcycle GP’s in 2015.”.

CoW, which hopes to be ready by 2017, faces a public enquiry before building work can start on the planned £250m (about R4.4bn) facility.

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2015 F1 season – fresh reports every day.

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