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World Touring Car Championship's 2016 Thailand round cancelled

The FIA has formally cancelled the Thailand round of the 2016 World Touring Car Championship season

WTCC promoter Eurosport Events made a request to the FIA Touring Car Commission to cancel the event at the FIA Grade 1 Buriram circuit on financial grounds.

That request was approved by the commission before its presentation to the World Motor Sport Council, which on Wednesday ratified the request at its meeting in Paris - reducing the calendar to 11 events for the first time since 2010.

Thailand hosted its first FIA-backed international meeting last year when the WTCC visited the venue at the end of October - although that event was not without its problems, with the planned second 'dusk' race on the floodlit circuit cut short when conditions were deemed too dark to race in.

The circuit was nevertheless due to host the championship for a second time this year, although the event remained provisional on the 2016 calendar pending the signing of a promoter agreement.

The management of the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand, the country's ASN, was however unable to complete a deal with Eurosport Events, which subsequently wrote to the FIA to ask for the event to be cancelled.

The event's previous uncertain status meant that Citroen's Jose Maria Lopez was able to provisionally secure a third world drivers' title in Japan at the beginning of the month, although the Argentinian has since put that crown beyond the reach of his rivals regardless of Thailand's status with an eighth win of the season in China last weekend.

The cancellation of the Thailand event means that there is now just one WTCC event remaining on the WTCC's 2016 schedule, with the season finale in Qatar still to run on November 24-25.

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