The weekend schedule for the MotoGP World Championship rounds has been revised once again, confirmed in an announcement made by the FIM earlier this week.

In a decision of the Grand Prix Commission on 14 January following an ‘electronic meeting’, the FIM confirmed that 45-minute sessions would return to the MotoGP category in 2011.

Last season saw three one-hour practice/qualifying sessions at the majority of rounds, however at the Aragon, Estoril and Valencia rounds the series returned to four sessions at 45-minutes each.

It was announced on 9 December that the series would revert to the pre-2010 schedule of four hour-long sessions during over the course of Friday and Saturday, but that has now been revised again.

The FIM has now confirmed that there will be three 45-minute practice sessions (two on Friday and one on Saturday morning), before Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session is extended to an hour in length.

It’s also been revealed that the 125GP class will now have four 40-minute sessions of practice/qualifying during the weekend.

In addition, the Qatar round has been extended to run over four days due to the slim window of acceptable track conditions in the evening event under lights before moisture rises in the circuit.

It’s been announced by Dorna that the event will feature a schedule spanned over four days, commencing with practice on Thursday and Friday, qualifying on Saturday and the usual race day on Sunday.