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Autodromo Brasilia Nelson Piquet

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The FIM has today released the final, official version of the 2014 MotoGP calendar. As expected, the Brazil round has been dropped, after it became clear that construction work at the Autodromo Nelson Piquet in Brasilia would not be completed in time for the September round.

To ease the congestion in that part of the season, the date of the Aragon round has now been pushed back a week, and will take place on 28th September, the date originally scheduled for Brazil.

Though widely expected, it appears that the Brazil round of MotoGP is on the verge of being canceled. Reports in Italy, on both Motosprint and InfoMotoGP, suggest that the company granted the contract to organize the Brazilian GP has not been able to secure the funding to renovate the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet circuit in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital (not to be confused with the circuit of the same name in Jacarepagua, near Rio de Janeiro).

It was known when the contracts were signed that the circuit in Brasilia would need a lot of work done, both in terms of safety improvements and to bring the facilities up to Grand Prix level. According to the reports from Italy, no work has been done on the circuit, and the company involved is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The first major change to the 2014 MotoGP schedule has been announced. Though the dates remain the same, the order of the Asian flyaway triple header has been reshuffled, with Sepang moving from first of the three to last.

The Grand Prix classes will now head to Japan first, for the Japanese GP at Motegi on 12th October, before heading south to Australia for the Phillip Island round a week later, on 19th October. The weekend after that the MotoGP paddock visits Malaysia, for the last of the three overseas races at Sepang on 26th October.