Qatar MotoGP round set to be cancelled - report

MotoGP's already-rescheduled Qatar Grand Prix looks set to be officially cancelled, with no replacement round added to compensate, according to The Race.

The Lusail race had originally been pencilled in for April. Still, it was moved to November after the outbreak of hostilities between Iran and the United States, with the American air base at Al Udeid, situated just 25 miles from the circuit, subjected to repeated Iranian missile strikes in the early stages of the conflict.

That reshuffle cascaded through the tail end of the calendar, pushing the season's final two rounds in Portugal and Valencia back by a week to accommodate the new November Qatar slot.

Despite paddock rumours pointing towards a replacement race being added, with a Sepang double-header in Malaysia emerging as the most likely candidate, that plan now appears to have been dropped entirely.

The two-wheeled championship, therefore, looks set to lose one of its 22 rounds rather than find an alternative.

Beyond the 2026 season, the ongoing regional uncertainty is also delaying the announcement of the 2027 MotoGP calendar.

Speaking to media at this weekend's Aragon Grand Prix, series deputy CEO Carlos Ezpeleta acknowledged that finalising next year's dates remains impossible until the broader situation becomes clearer.

"The 2027 calendar is nearly set," he said. "We're obviously waiting to see how the situation in the Middle East evolves, because that would also affect next year's calendar. We're probably a couple or three weeks away from being able to announce."

An official announcement on the Qatar cancellation is expected within the coming days.

The F1 picture remains similarly murky

At last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali confirmed that the current plan is for the championship to complete its own season as planned, with Qatar and Abu Dhabi still on the schedule.

However, that was not a definitive confirmation that those two rounds will go ahead, with a formal decision on the status of those F1 races yet to be made.

Both F1 and MotoGP are owned by Liberty Media, which adds an interesting dimension to how the two series navigate what remains a genuinely fluid geopolitical situation.