{"id":541690,"date":"2026-03-15T09:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541690\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T09:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:37:08","slug":"motogp-announces-major-calendar-reshuffle-as-qatar-race-moved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541690\/","title":{"rendered":"MotoGP announces major calendar reshuffle as Qatar race moved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MotoGP will not cancel its Qatar Grand Prix due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, and has instead elected to change its calendar to slot it in later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Since joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February plunged the Middle East into conflict, the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix has been in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>Due to take place on the weekend of 10-12 April, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/news\/1091388\/1\/official-iran-war-forces-f1-bahrain-saudi-arabian-gps-be-cancelled\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">confirmation from Formula 1<\/a> on Saturday night that its Bahrain Grand Prix on the same date has been cancelled made the same fate likely for MotoGP\u2019s Lusail round.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> has now confirmed that it has postponed the race, rather than cancelling it outright, to the weekend of 8 November.<\/p>\n<p>As such, MotoGP has been forced into a major calendar reshuffle, which will see the season end later than planned.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Qatar will now form the back-end of a triple-header with Australia and Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>The Portuguese Grand Prix has now been moved back to the weekend of 22 November, with the Valencia finale now on 29 November.<\/p>\n<p>This means the post-race Valencia test, which will mark the public debut of the new 850cc machines, will likely run on Tuesday 1 December.<\/p>\n<p>MotoGP CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said: \u201cThis decision was taken with great care and in full coordination with our partners in Qatar and across the paddock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur priority is always the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in MotoGP, as well as ensuring that every grand prix is delivered to the highest possible standard.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also recognise the importance of providing clarity for our fans as early as possible, and ticket holders will be given the opportunity to rollover their tickets to the next event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would also like to thank our partners in Portimao and Valencia for their collaboration and flexibility in helping us deliver a smooth transition to the revised calendar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are confident that the updated schedule will allow us to preserve the quality of the championship while offering fans an exceptional season of racing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif Al Mannai, President of the Qatar Motor &amp; Motorcycle Federation and Lusail International Circuit (LIC), added: \u201cThe Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and Lusail International Circuit (LIC) respect and support the decision of the MotoGP Sport and Entertainment Group to postpone the MotoGP Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar to November 6\u20138, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe sincerely thank our fans, teams and partners for their understanding and ongoing support, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to Lusail International Circuit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MotoGP will not cancel its Qatar Grand Prix due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, and has instead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,176737,5745,268368,806,805,803,804,16260,85],"class_list":["post-541690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-losail-international-circuit","tag-motogp","tag-motogp-night-race","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-qatar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}