Official: Italian, Catalunya MotoGP rounds postponed

MotoGP has officially confirmed both the Italian and Catalunya rounds have been postponed indefinitely amid the coronavirus crisis.

Yesterday (April 6) the Catalan government announced its MotoGP round at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would not take place on its original schedule of June 5-7 with the knock-on effect pouring greater doubt on the Mugello race given it had been set to take place a week earlier on May 29-31.

MotoGP’s organising body has duly announced both races have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while both races will look for new dates later in the year.

“As the situation remains in a state of constant evolution, new dates for these Grands Prix, as well as the recently-postponed French and Spanish GPs, cannot be confirmed until it becomes clearer when exactly it will be possible to hold the events,” a MotoGP statement read.

“A revised calendar will be published as soon as [it is] available.”

With Mugello and Barcelona off, Sachsenring has become the new provisional 2020 MotoGP opener, for the premier class given Moto2 and Moto3 seasons started in Qatar, but that race remains under threat on June 19-21 given Germany recently broke the 100,000 COVID-19 cases mark and remains the third-worst hit country in Europe by coronavirus.

After finding alternative dates for Buriram, COTA and Termas de Rio Hondo - thus maintaining its plan to hold all 19 remaining rounds after Qatar - MotoGP has changed tact, simply announcing Jerez and Le Mans as postponed, with no new date decided until the start of racing becomes clearer. Mugello and Barcelona have also been added to the ‘TBC’ scheduling list.

Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has also warned it will be ‘difficult or impossible’ to hold any MotoGP events until a vaccine is found for coronavirus.