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MotoGP will hold a Kazakhstan Grand Prix from next year, championship organisers have announced.
The category will race at the brand-new Sokol International Racetrack, located just outside the nation’s largest city, Almaty.
A date for the inaugural Kazakhstan round, the first in a five-year deal, is yet to be confirmed.
“The FIM MotoGP World Championship is coming to Kazakhstan!” read an announcement from the championship, in part.
“2023 marks the start of a new five-year deal that sees MotoGP touch down in a new region of the world as the stunning Sokol International Racetrack joins the calendar.”
The announcement is the third regarding new or potential new events/circuits this month alone, following talks regarding an Indian Grand Prix and the signing of a memorandum of understanding with a Saudi Arabian company.
The India event would take place at the Buddh International Circuit and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on what MotoGP has described as a “newly constructed, multi-purpose FIM and FIA homologated circuit”, possibly the mooted Qiddiya venue.
Kazakhstan will become the 30th country to host a motorcycle grand prix since 1949, and Sokol the 74th venue to host a premier class grand prix.
Coincidentally, the 2022 season continues this weekend at one of MotoGP’s newer events and tracks, namely the Thailand Grand Prix at the Buriram International Circuit.
Both joined the calendar in 2018, although the 2022 event will be just the third given the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Practice at Buriram starts on Friday.
