The FIA World Touring Car Championship has issued an amended calendar for the 2016 season following the change in plans to start the season in Sochi, Russia.

The WTCC Race of Russia has instead been moved to Moscow Raceway on June 10-12th, taking over the date previously held by the Race of Portugal at Vila Real, that has now been moved to the 24-26th of June.

“It has always been our intention to preserve Russia’s presence on the WTCC calendar and we are very pleased to have reached agreement with Moscow Raceway for this to happen,” said François Ribeiro, Head of Eurosport Events, the WTCC promoter.

”The venue always delivers excellent WTCC races and its close proximity to the Russian capital provides a number of promotional opportunities and I expect this event to run at a much larger scale than previous editions. Our sincere thanks go to the city of Vila Real, the FPAK in Portugal, the RAF in Russia, our Russian stakeholders LADA and Rosneft and the FIA Touring Car Commission for all their assistance with this calendar change. We now look forward to a very exciting WTCC with new cars, new drivers, new MAC 3 format and other new initiatives in store.”

The new schedule means, as previously reported, that the French race at Paul Ricard will host the season start on April 1-3rd.

The calendar remains provisional as it has been submitted to the FIA World Motor Sport Council for approval.

FIA World Touring Car Championship calendar 2016*

1-3 April 2016: FIA WTCC Race of France (Circuit Paul Ricard)

15-17 April 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia (Slovakia Ring)

22-24 April 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Hungary (Hungaroring)

7-8 May 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Morocco (Circuit Moulay El Hassan, Marrakech) S

26-28 May 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Germany (Nürburgring Nordschleife)

10-12 June 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Russia (Moscow Raceway)

24-26 June 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Portugal (Circuito Internacional de Vila Real) S

5-7 August 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Argentina (Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo)**

2-4 September 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Japan (Twin Ring Motegi)

23-25 September 2016: FIA WTCC Race of China (Shanghai International Circuit)

4-6 November 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Thailand (Chang International Circuit)**

23-25 November 2016: FIA WTCC Race of Qatar (Losail International Circuit) N

S = Street race

N = Night Race

* = Subject to final FIA World Motor Sport Council approval

** = Pending on signature of promoter agreement