Breaking news

WTCR Hungaroring

WTCR's April opener cancelled due to coronavirus

The 2020 World Touring Car Cup opener in Hungary has been called off due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, the series announced on Friday.

Valentin Khorounzhiy

Edited: Mar 13, 2020, 9:32 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Attila Tassi, KCMG Honda Civic Type R TCR

The cancellation of the two-race Hungaroring event, which had been slated for April 24-26, is the latest in what is an increasingly long line of cancellations induced by the COVID-19 virus and the government countermeasures aimed at limiting its spread.

WTCR promoter Eurosport Events says the cancellation is "the result of Hungarian government measures taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak", with the country "banning public gatherings of more than 500 people until further notice".

Eurosport Events adds that holding the event at a later date in 2020 is "unfortunately not possible".

The Hungaroring round has been a mainstay of WTCR's - and its predecessor WTCC's - schedule for the past decade, and is the home race of one of its most popular drivers, the reigning series champion Norbert Michelisz.

To make up for the Hungary cancellation, WTCR has put in place an FIA-approved plan to hold the relevant qualifying schedule and two races at Motorland Aragon as part of its July 3-5 Race of Spain weekend instead.

This will be done "to maintain WTCR's planned 20-race schedule for the season".

As Eurosport Events acknowledges the possibility that the May 20-23 round at the Nurburgring Nordschleife and the June 5-7 round at the Slovakia Ring could also get called off due to the outbreak, the promoter has mooted the possible addition of a third WTCR race to four other events - Portugal (June 20-21), Austria (July 25-26), China (September 19-20) and South Korea (October 17-18) - as a counter-measure.

The Hungary WTCR round was due to run in conjunction with the European Truck Racing Championship opener, which has not been cancelled outright - instead being postponed to a provisional new date of June 13-14.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Formula E: Two-month suspension is "most responsible action"

Next article Juncadella joins R-Motorsport's GT World Challenge effort

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Jorge Martin declared fit to race in Malaysian GP after FP1

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Malaysian GP

2 h

Jorge Martin declared fit to race in Malaysian GP after FP1

Cetilar unveils blue Ferrari 499P ahead of Hypercar debut

Asian Le Mans

AsLM Asian Le Mans 4 h

Cetilar unveils blue Ferrari 499P ahead of Hypercar debut

2026 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix – How to watch, session times & more

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Malaysian GP

5 h

2026 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix – How to watch, session times & more

"Two steps forward, one step back" – Oscar Piastri explains the route out of McLaren's car woes

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

6 h

"Two steps forward, one step back" – Oscar Piastri explains the route out of McLaren's car woes

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts