The Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement with commercial and television rights holder Dorna Sports to stage MotoGP races in the Kingdom for three years, starting next year.
The deal was made during a meeting between SAT governor Sakol Wannapong and Dorna Sports executives at the weekend in Italy.
The 2018 race in Thailand will take place from Oct 5-7 and is expected to be held at Buriram International Circuit.
The event will be organised ahead of races in Japan, Australia and Malaysia, the SAT said.
Dorna Sports will soon send the SAT a formal letter of confirmation.
There will be 20 MotoGP races next year including three new venues -- Thailand and Kazakhstan and Finland.
Meanwhile, Andrea Dovizioso overcame pre-race sickness to win his home Italian Grand Prix for Ducati on Sunday while Spaniard Maverick Vinales finished second on a Yamaha to increase his MotoGP lead to 26 points.
Italian riders also triumphed in the other two events with Mattia Pasini of Kalex taking the Moto2 title and Andrea Migno of KTM finishing first in Moto3.
"This win is a dream come true," said the 31-year-old Dovizioso, who had been feeling poorly overnight but eventually beat Vinales by 1.281sec.
"The home crowds helped me."
The next race will be at Barcelona this weekend. bangkok post/agencies