MotoGP Confirms Plan to Hold 2024 Finale in Barcelona

Last week’s awful scenes in Spain and particularly the Valencia region led to many people losing their lives, while others were stranded without a home.

While the Valencia circuit itself avoided disturbance, the link road to the circuit did encounter severe damage, as did many buildings, roads and other infrastructures.

After initially wanting to run the 2024 MotoGP finale at Valencia as planned on November 15-17, MotoGP made the right decision to cancel the event at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

However a replacement is scheduled for the same weekend and it looks like Barcelona will be the destination of choice.

“We thought it was important to tell the riders before they went out on track yesterday, especially those in contention for positions, that there would be another event on the calendar,” Ezpeleta said at the Malaysian MotoGP.

“It’s been a very challenging couple of days, much more so for the Community of Valencia of course, but we think that – given the situation the Championship is in, sporting wise, but also for fans across the world – we thought it was important to hold a final event of the season. We owe that to the paddock and our fans.

“We have been looking at all the possibilities we had, it’s very challenging to organise an event in two weeks, but during the last 48 hours we’ve looked at all possible alternatives.

“We think that Barcelona is the best possible place given the proximity to Valencia, given that a lot of people were already travelling through to get to the finale, and especially for fans – we think it’s the best possible place for them.

“We also know we will be able to help the Community of Valencia from that location as well.

“That’s why we’ve requested the Government of Catalunya to be able to hold the event there. They want to communicate and align themselves with both the Government of Spain and that of Valencia before confirming the event, and we hope that confirmation comes in the next 48 hours.

“But the urgency right now is Valencia – not confirming our GP. It’s something we can wait for and once it’s confirmed we’ll start working as hard as possible, as it’s definitely a challenge but we think there’s a lot of good we can do and we feel we owe it to our fans.

“We want to thank the entire MotoGP community, the riders, and the teams, for their proactiveness, help, and support.”

The decision to not race in Valencia is the right one, but it could be argued that racing outside of Spain was the most sensible choice.

Many riders shared their views prior to the Malaysian MotoGP, saying they should not race in Valencia, including Francesco Bagnaia who admitted he would not race if the event had gone ahead as planned.

But his team-mate Enea Bastianini has now claimed that racing in Barcelona is not the right call.

The soon-to-be KTM rider said, “For me, it wasn’t correct to race in Spain. But it’s like this, this is the choice of Dorna.

“But nothing, we have to give 100%. I have to be much stronger compared to the race in Barcelona at the start of the season, because I was fast but I got two, three long lap penalties. Let’s see.”

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