MotoGP announces 2024 season-opener venue and date

The 2023 season was billed to be the longest in MotoGP history at 21 events, though has been cut back by one after the FIM and Dorna Sports announced on Wednesday that the inaugural Kazakhstan GP had been cancelled due to homologation hurdles.

The new campaign kicked off on 26 March in Portugal and will run to 26 November in Valencia.

But, ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, MotoGP has announced that Qatar will return to hosting the opening stop of the season and will do so on the weekend of 8 – 10 March.

Qatar lost its slot as the season-opener for 2023 due to track works needing to take place prior to Formula 1’s return later this year, with Losail staging MotoGP on 19 November.

MotoGP has also firmed up pre-season testing dates for next year, with three days of official running taking place on 6-8 February in Malaysia and two more on 19-20 February in Qatar.

A one-day 2024 test will take place on the Tuesday following the season-ending Valencia GP this November.

“The dates for the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix can now be announced,” a statement from MotoGP read.

“The 8 to 10 March 2024 is the provisional date to be proposed to the FIM as MotoGP prepares to return to Qatar’s spectacular floodlights for the first event of the season.

“Before an exception in 2023 due to extensive renovation to the circuit facilities, Qatar had opened the championship for the past 16 seasons consecutively and will now do so once again.

“The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix will be held on the 19 November, for the penultimate round of the year, before MotoGP is set to return less than four months later for the 2024 opener.

“Testing for 2024 will begin as soon as November as we get our very first taste of next year’s grid in a one-day test just after the 2023 season finale.

“The Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, as the host for the final round of the season, will stage this one-day test on Tuesday the 28 November 2023.”

No other 2024 race dates have been announced yet.