Fans to Stay Away from Silverstone

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Up to 20,000 ticket holders are being asked to stay away from Saturday's qualifying sessions at Silverstone.

Heavy rain affected thousands of race fans on Friday and left half of the circuit's car parks unusable.

Officials want to get them back into use for Sunday's British Grand Prix, when 125,000 race fans are expected.

Silverstone's managing director Richard Phillips said: "If you have a public car parking ticket we are strongly advising you not to come tomorrow."

He added: "The situation is that we want to try to recover things for Sunday and that's the most important thing for us at the moment."

The call only applies to people with tickets to park at the circuit - about 20,000 race fans. Ticket holders in car parks away from the circuit, those camping elsewhere and able to make it on foot, or planning to use the park and ride service, should still be able to access the site.

Phillips warned race fans with tickets for circuit car parks: "We could be in a situation where you will be in queues of traffic and don't actually get into the circuit. That's the harsh reality of where we are."

He said ticketholders who missed sessions on Friday and Saturday would be refunded.

"It's almost made me cry," he added.

"I always feel a responsibility because I am the person in charge but we have had an awful lot of rain in a short period of time. But of course I unreservedly apologise."

But he stressed: "We'll do our damnedest to make sure it [Sunday's Grand Prix] happens."

Earlier British Grand Prix officials described the problems that left thousands of fans stranded in traffic for hours as "a nightmare".

Queues stretching miles long formed as traffic backed up because of waterlogged car parks at Silverstone.

They were the worst problems since the 2000 event, which led to wholesale changes to the track's access roads.

The A43 was remodelled following the 2000 event, creating a dual carriageway bypass, and traffic management at the Grand Prix was completely overhauled.

The changes had appeared to have solved the traffic issues for which Silverstone had become notorious, and which almost at one stage led to it losing the British Grand Prix.

Yet, as in 2000, the problems on Friday were caused by waterlogged car parks and not enough hard-standing for vehicles coming to the track.

The official Silverstone campground was full and many unofficial camping grounds were forced to turn spectators away.

The recent wet weather - this June was the wettest in recorded history - has soaked the ground, meaning Friday's rain could not be absorbed.

A spokeswoman said: "We know we've got a problem, we know it's serious.

"We've the best people on the job, and we're doing all we can."

The spectators who did get into the circuit were faced with watching only limited action in the continuing rain.

In both 90-minute practice sessions only nine drivers completed 10 or more laps.