Changes made to 2009 F1 calendar

Share

The Chinese Grand Prix will be the third race of the 2009 season after the World Motor Sport Council made several amendments to the Formula One calendar.

The Shanghai race has traditionally been held towards the end of the season but will be staged in April next year.

Brazil is now the penultimate race, on 18 October, and the Bahrain Grand Prix has gone back a week to 26 April but there is no Canadian race scheduled.

The championship ends with the first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 1 November.

And in order to boost television coverage in Europe, the council has also moved the start of the first two races, in Australia and Malaysia, to 1700 local time.

Despite recent talks between F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the Canadian government with regard to reinstating the Montreal race, it remains absent from next year's calendar.

However, it is understood Ecclestone is to a hold a further meeting to discuss the financial issues that led to Canada's omission.

The French Grand Prix has also been removed from the calendar due to lack of funding.

With a four-week summer break after the race in Hungary on 26 July, there is scope for a further amendment, but for now the calendar incorporates 17 races.

Revised 2009 F1 calendar:

29 March: Australia
5 April: Malaysia
19 April: China
26 April: Bahrain
10 May: Spain
24 May: Monaco
7 June: Turkey
21 June: Great Britain
12 July: Germany
26 July: Hungary
23 August: Spain
30 August: Belgium
13 September: Italy
27 September: Singapore
4 October: Japan
18 October: Brazil
1 November: Abu Dhabi