MotoGP hoping race will go on despite state of emergency in Spain
PETALING JAYA: MotoGP organisers are keeping their fingers crossed that the upcoming two races in Valencia will not be affected by the Spanish government’s decision to declare a state of emergency in response to rising Covid-19 cases.
Spain is the first country in Western Europe to record more than a million cases last week.
And the government has imposed a night-time curfew between 11pm to 6am.
Portimao is scheduled to hold the season finale from Nov 20-22 after Valencia but this also depends on final confirmation from the Portugal government.
Chief executive officer of MotoGP rights holder Dorna, Carmelo Ezpeleta, however, insists the races in Valencia are not affected by the Spanish government’s decision.
“Nothing has changed at the moment. A state of alarm in Spain, in principal, doesn’t impact our situation.
“We’re working during the race and if there are restrictions on movement after 10pm until the morning, it doesn’t impact us.
“At the moment we can continue. In any case we’re in close contact with the authorities in each place and at the moment we didn’t receive any kind of information about it,” he said in a teleconference.
However, things could become complicated if travel restrictions between each region are imposed.
Ezpeleta said MotoGP have shown their testing and monitoring protocols can detect and isolate Covid-19 cases before widespread transmission.
The most high-profile case to date has been Italy’s nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, who was forced to withdraw from both Aragon rounds recently.
The other cases involved Jorge Martin of Spain (Moto2) and Tony Arbolino of Italy (Moto3).
“We are controlling the cases, there were some in Austria and then in any place there have been one or two people who have been home and then have some problems between some riders and some workers in the paddock.
“But the most important thing is that, through the tests we’re doing, we are able to control everything and know what the situation is.”