The first race for the MotoGP 2020 season has been cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. The Grand Prix of Qatar was originally scheduled to take place this coming weekend on the 6th to 8th March 2020.
According to the official statement, the cancellation was due to Qatar’s travel restriction which affects passengers from several countries including Italy. It is a requirement that all passengers flying to Doha from Italy, or have been to Italy in the past two weeks would require a quarantine for a minimum of 14 days.
Since Italy plays a major role in the Championship and in the MotoGP class, a decision has been made to cancel the premier class competition due to the current situation. The Moto2 and Moto3 categories will still continue as the teams and riders were already in Qatar for three-day testing last week. The lightweight and intermediate classes will still complete in the season opener from the 6th to 8th March.
The next round for the MotoGP is scheduled for Thailand on 20th to 22nd March and it isn’t clear if it can continue due to the current COVID-19 outbreak. At the moment, there are a total of 87,518 COVID-19 cases and 2,990 deaths reported worldwide. South Korea, Italy and Iran have the most number of confirmed cases outside of China which had increased sharply over the past week. Italy current has 1,128 confirmed cases and 29 deaths reported so far.
[ SOURCE, IMAGE SOURCE ]
