MotoGP will introduce sprint races into every race weekend from next season, series organisers Dorna Sports announced on Saturday morning at the Red Bull Ring.
It was reported on Friday that the Spanish organisation had elected to try and replicate the success of Formula 1’s implementation of the sprint race format in order to bring more eyes to MotoGP in future.
The news was made official in a Dorna press conference, with the news announed just after FP3 in Austria.
FIM president Jorge Viegas subsequently announced the details of the implementation of the sprint races during the conference, with the contests set to occur on a Saturday afternoon across half the distance of a conventional grand prix and not count towards the starting grid of Sunday’s grand prix, with half points to be awarded.
Additionally, unlike F1 where only a handful of sprint race weekends are run per season, MotoGP will have a sprint race at all 20 events set to take place next year, following a trend set by the fellow Dorna-run World Superbike series with its Superpole race that runs on Sunday morning of every WSBK event, though it differs in that it sets the grid for the final race of the weekend.
Details were scant regarding the schedule of the races, with Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta stating in the conference that a further announcement would come once further progress had been made by talking with the teams and riders in terms of the length.
However, IRTA president Herve Poncharal said the total track time of the riders – as well as the total weekend tyre allocation – would not increase as a result of the inclusion of sprint races.
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