2022 MotoGP calendar goes optimistic with full international return planned

The 2022 MotoGP World Championship has laid out its plans to return to an international calendar for the first time since 2019 with a 21 event schedule that includes flyaways and two all-new venues.

The 2020 MotoGP season was forced to delay its opening round by four months before entering into a truncated 14-event calendar as a direct result of COVID-19, with the current 2021 MotoGP season also hampered with a handful of long-haul events - Japan, Malaysia, Argentina, Thailand and Australia - dropping off the schedule in favour of a larger European centric campaign.

However, Dorna and the FIM’s first draft of the 2022 MotoGP calendar has started with provisionally high hopes of an expanded 21-race schedule beginning on 04-06 March in Qatar at the Losail International Circuit.

It will be followed by one of two new events scheduled to take place, the first coming at the Mandalika Street Circuit in Indonesia. 

The first motorcycle Grand Prix event to take place in the Asian nation since 1997 when Sentul held an event for a brief two-event stint, the all-new venue - located on the island of Lombok, close to Bali - will get its inauguration on 20-21 November as the final round of the 2021 WorldSBK Championship.

After a two event jaunt to the Americas with event in Argentina and the United States, Portugal will host the first of 12 European consecutive rounds at Portimao. Though it only made its debut on the MotoGP calendar in 2020 as a late substitute event, it has received a stay of execution and will hold two rounds in 2021, making it already the series’ fourth visit by 2022.

Amid the European jaunt is the twice delayed return to Finland for the first time since 1978. To be held at the new KymiRing facility, it will become the northernmost MotoGP event.

Japan, Thailand and Malaysia make up the traditional triple-header flyaways towards the end of the year, with Valencia retaining its place as the season concluder.

2022 MotoGP World Championship Calendar [Provisional - 7 Oct]