PARIS: The season-opening Qatar MotoGP, scheduled to take place on March 8, was cancelled on Sunday because of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, the international motorcycling federation (FIM) announced. As the coronavirus has spread, Italy has become the hardest-hit European country with 34 deaths and over 1,600 people infected. MotoGP riders and teams were in Qatar from Feb 22-24 for the final session of winter testing. We’ll see now when the first race will be.”LATEST SPORTS CASUALTYQatar was to be the first of a 20-race MotoGP season and it becomes the latest motorsports event cancelled because of the spread of coronavirus. With the Qatar round was cancelled, the Thailand MotoGP at Buriram on March 22 now becomes the season-opener.

Source: New Strait Times March 02, 2020 01:07 UTC