Phillip Island dropped from 2021 MotoGP schedule, second race at Portimao added

The 2021 MotoGP World Championship calendar has received yet another tweak with the Australian round at Phillip Island cancelled, to be replaced by a second event to take place at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal in November.

The annual visit to the popular Phillip Island Circuit in Melbourne has long been under threat as a consequence of COVID-19, with the nation’s strict entry requirements expected to force either a cancellation or a postponement without a significant improvement in the global situation.

However, Australia is still in the relatively early stages of rolling out its vaccine and has recently re-entered lockdown in some areas due to an outbreak of the Delta variant.

As such, the 24 October event has been formally cancelled well in advance, becoming the third race of the year to be scrapped entirely, together with the Finnish MotoGP and the Japanese MotoGP. The Argentinian MotoGP round at Termas Rio Hondo remains TBA.

As a result of the Australian cancellation, Dorna has replaced it with a second event to be held in Portugal at Portimao, to be known as the Algarve MotoGP. 

The Portuguese MotoGP at the same circuit represented the third round of the season in April, with the Algarve MotoGP taking place as the penultimate round of the year on 7 November, the weekend before the season finale in Valencia.

The Malaysian MotoGP has also been moved to fill the space left by Australia on 24 October making it a back-to-back with the Thailand MotoGP. 

The announcement further reduces MotoGP’s flyaway events with only three taking place, including the two aforementioned and the USA.

2021 MotoGP World Championship Calendar [as of 6/7/21]