The final round of the 2024 MotoGP world championship will not take place at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
Instead, the 20th round of the campaign will be delayed and moved to another venue as Valencia continues to recover from the devastating flooding that tragically left many dead or missing earlier this week.
With the event originally scheduled to kick off in only 10 days’ time, MotoGP organiser Dorna had initially remained silent on its official channels regarding its plans.
In a somewhat bullish comment given to Spanish media on Thursday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, though, CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta had insisted that the plan remained to finish the year at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo even amid growing pressure from within the paddock.
Things came to a head on Friday afternoon when reigning world championship Pecco Bagnaia, who currently trails Jorge Martin in the championship and realistically needs two more rounds if he is to have a good chance at defending his title, stated that he would not race in Valencia on ethical grounds.
Coming largely from a desire to allow ongoing rescue and reconstruction work to continue unimpeded, his words have been backed up by a significant number of his fellow riders, and have in turn seemingly contributed to a change of direction at last.
The Race's sources confirmed that Dorna informed teams on Friday night that the final round would be delayed one week until 22-24 November and moved to a new venue that is still to be confirmed.
An official announcement followed shortly, with MotoGP saying it "carefully weighed the potential positive impact" of the race going ahead against "ensuring no single resource is diverted from the recovery efforts" - and that this process left it and the local authorities in agreement that the race can't go ahead.
"In lieu of racing in Valencia, MotoGP will instead race for Valencia," the series' statement continued. "The championship will put our collective efforts behind backing the relief funds already in place to ensure our positive impact can connect with the area in the way it best serves the people and communities we have been part of for so long."
Three of the fallback options to replace Valencia are on the Iberian peninsula, with Jerez and Barcelona both in consideration - but potentially also affected by the emergency services pressure that Spain is now under.
Portugal’s Portimao track is also a contender, as is the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar despite its scheduled Formula 1 race taking place a week later.
A decision on where the race will take place will need to be taken in the next few days, with control tyre manufacturer Michelin requiring at least two weeks to construct a new allocation of race rubber for the rescheduled event.
