MOTORSPORT: Toyota the weekend's only winner

The World Rally Championship snuck in a shortened round – in Mexico, and won by Toyota for the first time – before major international motorsport ground to a halt at the weekend.

There are unlikely to be any global events until May and perhaps June because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rally Mexico ended a day early on Saturday so that international competitors could get out of the country before travel restrictions kicked in.

Sebastien Ogier won only four of the 20 stages completed in the WRC's first gravel rally of the year but had led from early in the event and took victory in the sizzling heat by almost half a minute in his Yaris.

While it was his sixth win in Mexico, equalling his French compatriot Sebastien Loeb, it was the first time Toyota – which Ogier only joined this year – had triumphed there.

The Japanese manufacturer had three of the top five finishers, with Welshman Elfyn Evans fourth and Finn Kalle Rovanpera fifth.

Second was Estonian Ott Tanak in a Hyundai i20 after overhauling Finn Teemu Suninen in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta that was losing its brakes.

Tanak – who won last year's world title with Toyota, ending Ogier's six-year streak – had crashed on Friday morning, damaging his rear suspension, but won six stages for the weekend.

His Hyundai teammate, Belgian Thierry Neuville, won eight stages but was out of contention early because of electrical problems and being 11 minutes late for a stage. He wound up 16th.

Ogier has now won Mexico with four manufacturers – Volkswagen, Ford, Citroen and Toyota – and has taken the championship lead in what may be his last season.

He has 62 points, Evans 54, Neuville 42, Rovanpera 40 and Tanak – who crashed out of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally but has been second in both events since – 38 and Suninen 26.

Toyota leads the manufacturer standings with 110 points to Hyundai's 89 and M-Sport Ford's 65.

Rally Argentina, scheduled for April 23-26, has been cancelled, with the next event in Portugal on May 21-24, the coronavirus pandemic permitting.

The Australian Rally Championship was due to start in Canberra next weekend but the National Capital Rally is off and WA's Forest Rally on April 17-19 obviously under a cloud.

Supercars is intending to reschedule its championship after losing its second round in the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix and the federal government's restrictions on mass gatherings KO'ing the Tasmanian round at Symmons Plains on the first weekend of April.

New Zealand's travel clamps also have at least delayed the scheduled trip to Auckland in late April.

The next Supercar rounds beyond then are in Perth in mid-May and at Winton in early June.

Supercars organisers are hopeful of finding a date later in the year to replace the lost GP round and perhaps to reschedule Tasmania and NZ.

The Carsales TCR Australia Series isn't due to start until late this month at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The Formula 1 season is not likely to begin now until at least the Monaco GP on May 24 – or perhaps the round in Azerbaijan in June.

Within hours of the Oz GP cancellation on Friday, the Bahrain and new Vietnam F1 races were officially off.

The Chinese GP in April had already been postponed and the revived Dutch GP on May 3 and the Spanish race in Barcelona on May 10 will be the next to go.

However, F1 sporting director Ross Brawn remains hopeful of a 17-GP season.

IndyCar was to have started at St Petersburg, Florida, at the weekend but that was cancelled, as have been the next three rounds in Alabama, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida and on the streets of Long Beach, California.

That means the series won't begin until at least May at Indianapolis, where Supercar champion Scott McLaughlin is due to make his Indycar debut on the road course two weeks before the Indianapolis 500.

The Formula E electric open-wheeler championship, which has been running in major city centres, has suspended its calendar.

NASCAR postponed two rounds, with the next – in Texas at the end of March – likely to be off too.

The announcement of 'convergence' rules for American and European sports car racing has been delayed by the cancellation of the 1000-mile (1,600km) World Endurance Championship rounds at Sebring in the US at the weekend.

The Sebring 12-Hour, a classic in America's IMSA series and which was to have been held on the weekend too, has been postponed until November.

Moto GP already was severely disrupted and, at best, will start in its Spanish heartland in May.