MotoGP shifts Aragon race to avoid F1 clash

Dorna has changed the start time of the Aragon MotoGP race in order to avoid a direct clash with Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.

The latter will start at 2010 local time or 2210 AEST on September 22, making for a favourable television window for European audiences but still an hour earlier than what has become the standard start time for F1’s traditional races.

MotoGP was, however, scheduled for its normal start time for European events of 1400 local time or 2200 AEST.

It has now been shifted an hour earlier, meaning that the chequered flag should be waved around 25 minutes prior to the start of the F1 grand prix.

The Moto3 race remains at 1100 local time/1900 AEST while Moto2 now follows MotoGP at 1430 local time/2230 AEST.

Warm up sessions will start at the normal times, from 0840 local/1640 AEST.

Organisers of the respective championships try to avoid clashes, and indeed direct clashes between the races themselves have become far less of an issue since F1 pushed its European races back from 1400 CEST to 1510 CEST in 2018.

There are six other weekends this year on which F1 and MotoGP rounds coincide, although four of those see the championships run on significantly different timezones to each other.

On the other two occasions, the Austrian F1 race started just after the Dutch MotoGP race finished, but the Hungarian F1 race and Czech MotoGP clashed when the latter was delayed due to rain.

Race days: Singapore Grand Prix and Aragon MotoGP