The Kazakhstan Grand Prix has been cancelled, Motorsport.com has learned. The first race in history on the Sokol track should have been held over the weekend from 20 to 22 September, but will be replaced by Qatar. We return to Lusail, therefore, for the second time in the season this year after the opening round in March. The cause can be attributed to the lack of guarantees offered by local organizers. Despite the efforts of Dorna, who sent staff to periodically check, the work is not yet completed and the logistics are complicated, a factor that has not helped.
The event in Sokol was already included in the calendar last year, but was never held because it had already been canceled due to the war involving Russia and Ukraine (as happened previously with Finland). Rescheduled for 2024, it was initially scheduled for July, only to be postponed to the weekend of 20 to 22 September to make it a replacement for India, canceled just a month ago.
The Kazakhstan Grand Prix is the third to be cancelled this season. The race at Termas de Rio Hondo was already removed from the calendar at the beginning of 2024. The cause is to be attributed to the change of government and the turmoil in the country. Subsequently, it was India that left the calendar: the grand prix that was supposed to take place at the Buddh Circuit was cancelled for financial reasons and Sokol was chosen as a replacement for that weekend.
The last time the MotoGP calendar was so disrupted dates back to 2020, when the Covid pandemic forced the organization to change plans to continue the season in maximum safety. Just that year, only 15 races were held, with five tracks hosting a double event (Jerez, Spielberg, Misano, Aragon and Valencia). A similar script was seen in 2021, the second and final year in which MotoGP raced for two weekends at the same track. History will repeat itself this year, after the Lusail race held from 8 to 10 March, we will return to Qatar in September.
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