Qatar round of World Superbike Championship postponed due to global coronavirus outbreak

The FIM and Dorna confirmed the news on Tuesday in a statement as the move comes after this weekend’s opening MotoGP race at the same venue was cancelled, whilst the second round of the premier class series in Thailand was also called off.

It read: “The FIM and Dorna WSBK Organization regret to announce that the Lauretana Water Qatar Round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is to be postponed until further notice.

“As the global coronavirus outbreak continues, travel restrictions to Qatar have been enforced, primarily affecting passengers from Italy, amongst others. People arriving directly from the country or who have been in Italy in the past two weeks will be taken directly to quarantine for a minimum of 14 days.

“Italian participation in WorldSBK – both on track and off – is vital, thus the decision has been taken to postpone the Lauretana Water Qatar Round until further notice. Further updates will be published in due course.”

The event was due to take place from March 13-15.

Last weekend, the opening round of the championship was held at Phillip Island in Australia, when Toprak Razgatlioglu, Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes shared the wins.

The next scheduled round is at Jerez in Spain from March 27-29.