Spanish Government throws weight of support behind MotoGP July restart

The 2020 MotoGP World Championship and WorldSBK Championships look almost certain to be given the green light to resume from July after receiving influential support from the Spanish Government.

The two series’ have been on pause since the coronavirus outbreak went worldwide at the start of March 2020, with WorldSBK completing just a single round in Australia, while MotoGP was forced to cancel its opener in Qatar before pulling the brakes on all following events.

However, with the Europe seemingly getting to grips with the pandemic – despite Spain suffering some of the worst losses in the world – Dorna is understood to be close to confirming the resumption of action from July 19th at Jerez.

A proposal to hold two back-to-back MotoGP events over consecutive weekends was made earlier this month, with WorldSBK then travelling to the venue in the south of Spain for its second round of the season on July 31-August 2.

Now the plan has received significant backing from the National Sports Council of Spain, which says it will do its utmost to ensure the season gets back underway within Spanish borders.

“The Government understands how important motorcycle racing is for Spanish sport, how much value it holds within our society and the impact it has on the reputation of our country, not only on the sporting side, but also regarding innovation and the development of new technologies”, Irene Lozano declared during the meeting.

As well as being significant for getting the season underway at least, it would also seemingly pave the way for several 2020 rounds to be played out in Spain.

As it stands, Spain already hosts four events on the MotoGP calendar – Jerez, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Motorland Aragon and Valencia – with each set to feature on the revised schedule. WorldSBK visits all but Valencia.

As well as Spain, MotoGP is expected to hold rounds in Austria, Czech Republic and Italy during the latter stages of summer – possibly with more than one race – before considering travelling overseas. There is no word yet on whether the British MotoGP at Silverstone will go ahead, but the government recently intimated it will relax quarantine measures to ensure F1 goes ahead, a ruling that could then apply to MotoGP.