There was an extended red flag during MotoGP Moto3 and Moto2 testing at Valencia on Thursday, not for a crash or bad weather, but due to there being oil on the track.
Not really much of a headline, as a red flag is what is expected of officiators when a bunch of the slippery liquid is thrown across the circuit.
One notable exception, of course, could be the 2012 NASCAR Cup race at Watkins Glen, where a slick circuit led to a fantastic battle between Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose on the final lap.
However, when it comes to bikes, racing on an oil-soaked track is uncalled for, as the World Superbike and Nurburgring circuit officials learned the hard way during Race 1 in 1999.
The problem that day was that there wasn’t just not a red flag – there wasn’t even the red-and-yellow striped flag being flown to warn the riders of the oil spill in Turn 1 – which had came from Igor Jerman’s Kawasaki.
Consequently, Akira Yanagawa, Noriyuki Haga, Pierfrancesco Chili, and Colin Edwards - among others - all went down in the turn, as seen in the video below.
Carl Fogarty held on to win the race, despite colliding into the lapped bike of Lothar Kraus, due to the fact that there were no blue flags being thrown to warn Kraus of the leaders coming up behind him.
An extended video of the race (including some additional gestures from Colin Edwards) can be watched HERE, with short highlights below from ChiliFan06 below.
