The FIM has finally announced that the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril will take place on May 6th, thus confirming that we will indeed be having 18 races this season.
In the provisional calendars that were released over the winter, Estoril was always listed as ’subject to contract’ as Dorna was still in discussions with the circuit over sanctioning fees, with the Portuguese government struggling to find the finances to fund the event caused by the strangling Euro debt crisis and massive spending cuts – even Italy dropped their candidacy for the 2020 Olympics for the same reasons.
Despite Estoril being saved for this year, it is very reasonable to believe that the Portugal round will be dropped from the calendar at the end of the season as Dorna wants to eliminate several venues from the Iberian peninsula in favour of expansion to other countries, with the Texas and Argentina GPs already confirmed in 2013 and India, Abu Dhabi, Chile and Korea trying to get into the game.
2012 MotoGP calendar1.
8 April Qatar* Losail2.
29 April Spain Jerez3.
6 May Portugal Estoril4.
20 May France Le Mans5.
3 June Catalunya Catalunya6.
17 June Great Britain Silverstone7.
30 June Netherlands** Assen8.
8 July Germany Sachsenring9.
15 July Italy Mugello10.
29 July United States… Laguna Seca11.
19 August Indianapolis Indianapolis12.
26 August Czech Republic Brno13.
16 September San Marino Misano14.
30 September Aragon Motorland15.
14 October Japan Motegi16.
21 October Malaysia Sepang17.
28 October Australia Phillip Island18.
11 November Valencia Ricardo Tormo* Evening Race** Saturday Race… Only MotoGP class