Hotels for Qatar 1812 km 2026 (FIA WEC)

The World Endurance Championship field mixes factory hypercars with GT entries, so faster prototypes are constantly lapping slower traffic, which keeps the racing tense from the first hour to the last. A season finale carries extra weight, with championship points often still in play right to the chequered flag.

The Qatar 1812km takes the World Endurance Championship to the Lusail International Circuit, the floodlit venue just north of Doha that opened in 2004 as the first purpose-built home of Middle Eastern motorsport and later the birthplace of MotoGP's night racing. Qatar joined the endurance calendar in 2024, and its distinctive race distance of 1,812 kilometres is a nod to the country's National Day on 18 December.

The format is pure Lusail: cars set off in the fierce afternoon heat and race on into the cool of the desert night beneath the circuit's permanent lights, the track surface and tyre behaviour shifting markedly as temperatures fall. Fast, smooth and technical, the circuit rewards precise sports-prototypes and well-drilled GT crews across a punishing distance.

Well connected to Doha by road and the city's metro, and framed by the gleaming towers of Lusail, it has quickly become one of the championship's signature rounds.

Lusail International Circuit is a floodlit Formula 1 and MotoGP venue north of Doha, a fast technical lap through the desert that comes alive under lights as darkness falls over the Gulf. The circuit is 20 kilometres from Doha's glittering waterfront, with the Souq Waqif bazaar, the Museum of Islamic Art and modern hotels all close by.

The Lusail Metro Line runs directly to the circuit. Late autumn here is warm and reliably clear, making the night race spectacular. Book in Doha early; the city's hotels are plentiful but demand grows sharply in the autumn racing season.