DOHA (Qatar): The French MotoGP, initially scheduled for May 15-17 in Le Mans, has been postponed because of the “ongoing coronavirus outbreak“, organisers announced on Thursday.
“The FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports regret to announce the postponement of the SHARK Helmets Grand Prix de France, which was set to be held at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans from the 15th to the 17th of May. The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has obliged the event to be rescheduled,” MotoGP said on their website.
A revised calendar will be published as soon as available, it added.
“As the situation remains in a state of constant evolution, new dates for the French GP and the recently-postponed Gran Premio Red Bull de Espana cannot be confirmed until it becomes clearer when exactly it will be possible to hold the events,” the international motorcycling federation said.
The French MotoGP is the latest sporting casualty of the coronavirus pandemic and follows the cancellation of the elite category season-opening MotoGP in Qatar.
The next three legs of the 2020 calendar in Thailand, Texas and Argentina have also been put on ice, with Dorna, the series promoter, hoping to run them in the second half of a truncated season.
Dorna has already said it will push back the end of the season two weeks to November 29.
Iannone gets 18-month doping ban
Italian MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone has been banned for 18 months after testing positive for anabolic steroids, the international motorcycling federation (FIM) announced on Wednesday.
Iannone, 30, tested positive in a urine sample collected at an in-competition test at the Malaysian MotoGP in Sepang on November 3.
An FIM disciplinary hearing imposed a ban from December 17, 2019 to June 16, 2021.
Iannone’s team Aprilia said they would be appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the FIM had recognised the possibility of food contamination.
“On the one hand they recognise my innocence, because they speak of involuntary contamination, but we lost because I was sentenced,” Iannone told Sky Sport Italia.
