The 2020 World Rally Championship calendar has already been reduced by one, with the Rally of Chile being cancelled.
Social unrest in the country has forced the cancellation of the event, which was to have been the fourth round of next year's series.
In a statement released by the rally organisers, the reason given is because of the timing of the rally coinciding with a political vote in the country.
The statement read: “In a joint meeting in which the Undersecretary of Sport, Andrés Otero participated; the mayor of the Biobío Region, Sergio Giacaman; the president of the Chilean Automobile Federation, Mauricio Melo, and the general producer of Copec RallyMobil, Felipe Horta, decided to suspend the completion of the Copec Rally Chile, fourth calendar date of the World Rally Championship 2020, and that had Concepción as host city.
“The competition that would take place next 9, 10, 11 and 12 in April would coincide with the development of the plebiscite to enter a new Constitution, so authorities and organizers decided to cancel the event in its 2020 version.”
The country plan to return to the calendar in 2021, adding: “The suspension of the world date is not a goodbye to the country’s event, but Concepción will receive the tournament again in its 2021 and 2022 versions.”
Melo commented: “That it is cancelled does not mean that it cannot be done, one year runs, one runs for 2021, but we are not only with the experience but with more desire to do it and improve what we did this year.”
Ott Tänak won the inaugural Rally Chile for Toyota.
Next seasons running of the event had been set to be part of a South American trio of rounds with Argentina and Mexico also on the calendar.
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