MotoGP announces 2024 season-opener venue and date
The 2023 season was billed to be the longest in MotoGP history at 21 events, though has been cut back by one after the FIM and Dorna Sports announced on Wednesday that the inaugural Kazakhstan GP had been cancelled due to homologation hurdles. The new campaign kicked off on 26 March in Portugal and will run to 26 November in Valencia. But, ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, MotoGP has announced that Qatar will return to hosting the opening stop of the season and will do so on the weekend of 8-10 March. Qatar lost its slot as the season-opener for 2023 due to track works needing to take place prior to Formula 1’s return later this year, with Losail staging MotoGP on 19 November. MotoGP has also firmed up pre-season testing dates for next year, with three days of official running taking place on 6-8 February in Malaysia and two more on 19-20 February in Qatar. A one-day 2024 test will take place on the Tuesday following the season -ending Valencia GP this Nov...