# Lusail International Circuit

The Lusail International Circuit (Arabic: حلبة لوسيل الدولية, sometimes rendered Losail International Circuit) is a motor racing circuit located just outside the city of Lusail, north of Doha, Qatar. The track is 5.419 km (3.367 mi) in length, with a main straight of 1.068 km (0.664 mi). It is surrounded by artificial grass intended to stop the sand encroaching on the track.

## History

Built in just under a year by 1,000 workers at the cost of US$58 million, the track opened in 2004 and hosted the inaugural Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix in the same year, won by Sete Gibernau. In 2007, Lusail added permanent outdoor lighting for night races. At the time, the lighting of the Lusail Circuit by Musco Lighting was the largest permanent venue sports lighting project in the world, a distinction that now belongs to another Persian Gulf motorsport venue, Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The first night race in MotoGP history was the 2008 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix in March 2008.
In February 2009, a GP2 Asia Series nighttime race took place. The World SBK visited Lusail in 2005–2009 and 2014–2019; and the WTCC visited there in 2015–2017.
The circuit hosted the 20th race of the 2021 Formula One season, the inaugural edition of the Qatar Grand Prix. Before the second edition of the Grand Prix, the circuit was renovated, the facilities upgraded, and the capacity was increased from 8,000 to 52,000.
Beginning in 2024, the FIA World Endurance Championship is set to host its season opener at Lusail, the Qatar 1812 km, in addition to the Prologue, the championship's pre-season testing sessions.

## Layout history

* Original Grand Prix Circuit (2004–2022)
* Grand Prix Circuit (2023–present)

## Events
### Current

* February: FIA World Endurance Championship Qatar 1812 km, Formula Regional Middle East Championship, F4 Middle East Championship, Classic Endurance Racing
* April: Grand Prix motorcycle racing Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix, Asia Talent Cup
* November: Formula One Qatar Grand Prix, FIA Formula 2 Championship

### Former

* Asia Road Racing Championship (2010–2015)
* F1 Academy (2024)
* F4 Saudi Arabian Championship (2024)
* FIM Endurance World Championship
** 8 Hours of Doha (2007–2012)
* GP2 Asia Series (2009)
* Grand Prix Masters (2006)
* Grand Prix motorcycle racing
** Doha motorcycle Grand Prix (2021)
* Motocross World Championship (2013–2017)
* MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship (2014)
* Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East (2024)
* Porsche GT3 Middle East Championship (2012–2015)
* Speedcar Series (2009)
* Superbike World Championship (2005–2009, 2014–2019)
* Supersport World Championship
* Supersport 300 World Championship (2019)
* World Touring Car Championship
** FIA WTCC Race of Qatar (2015–2017)

## Lap records

The official lap record for the current circuit layout is 1:22.384, set by Lando Norris driving for McLaren in the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix. As of February 2025, the fastest official race lap records at the Lusail International Circuit are listed as:
| Category | Time | Driver | Vehicle | Event |
| Grand Prix Circuit: 5.419 km (2023–present) |||||
| Formula One | 1:22.384 | Lando Norris | McLaren MCL38 | 2024 Qatar Grand Prix |
| FIA F2 | 1:37.997 | Oliver Bearman | Dallara F2 2024 | 2024 Lusail Formula 2 round |
| LMDh | 1:39.748 | Matt Campbell | Porsche 963 | 2024 Qatar 1812 km |
| LMH | 1:41.259 | Alessandro Pier Guidi | Ferrari 499P | 2025 Qatar 1812 km |
| Formula Regional | 1:50.541 | Nikita Bedrin | Tatuus F3 T-318 | 2025 Lusail Formula Regional Middle East round |
| MotoGP | 1:52.657 | Pedro Acosta | KTM RC16 | 2024 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| GT3 | 1:53.529 | Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 2024 Qatar 1812 km |
| Formula 4 | 1:54.996 | Doriane Pin | Tatuus F4-T421 | 2024 Lusail F1 Academy round |
| Moto2 | 1:57.366 | Sam Lowes | Kalex Moto2 | 2023 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| Porsche Carrera Cup | 1:59.347 | Janne Stiak | Porsche 911 (992) GT3 Cup | 2024 Lusail Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East round |
| Group 6 | 2:01.965 | Charlie Hyett | Chevron B31 | 2025 Lusail Classic Endurance Racing round |
| Moto3 | 2:03.135 | Tatsuki Suzuki | Husqvarna FR250GP | 2024 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| Group 5 | 2:04.087 | Kyle Tilley | Chevron B27S | 2024 Lusail Classic Endurance Racing round |
| Touring car racing | 2:19.449 | Abdulla Ali Alkhelaifi | Honda S2000 | 2024 1st Qatar Touring Car Championship round |
| Original Grand Prix Circuit: 5.380 km (2004–2022) |||||
| Formula One | 1:23.196 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing RB16B | 2021 Qatar Grand Prix |
| GP2 Asia | 1:38.699 | Davide Rigon | Dallara GP2/05 | 2009 Qatar GP2 Asia Series round |
| GP Masters | 1:49.116 | Pierluigi Martini | Delta Motorsport GP Masters car | 2006 Losail Grand Prix Masters |
| MotoGP | 1:54.338 | Enea Bastianini | Ducati Desmosedici GP21 | 2022 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| World SBK | 1:56.687 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR | 2019 Lusail World SBK round |
| Moto2 | 1:58.711 | Thomas Lüthi | Kalex Moto2 | 2019 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| 250cc | 1:59.379 | Alex Debón | Aprilia RSV 250 | 2008 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| MRF Challenge | 1:59.519 | Toby Sowery | Dallara Formulino Pro | 2014 Lusail MRF Challenge round |
| Porsche Carrera Cup | 2:00.322 | Clemens Schmid | Porsche 911 (991 I) GT3 Cup | 2015 2nd Lusail Porsche GT3 Middle East Championship round |
| TC1 | 2:01.628 | José María López | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 2015 FIA WTCC Race of Qatar |
| World SSP | 2:01.832 | Kenan Sofuoğlu | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R | 2017 Lusail World SSP round |
| Stock car racing | 2:04.508 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Speedcar V8 | 2009 Lusail Speedcar Series round |
| Moto3 | 2:05.403 | Romano Fenati | Honda NSF250RW | 2019 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| 125cc | 2:05.695 | Scott Redding | Aprilia RS125R | 2008 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix |
| Supersport 300 | 2:13.798 | Ana Carrasco | Kawasaki Ninja 400 | 2019 Lusail Supersport 300 round |
| Asia Productions 250 | 2:24.177 | Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin | Yamaha YZF-R25 | 2015 Lusail ARRC round |
| Asia Underbone 130 | 2:31.934 | Ferlando Herdian | Yamaha T-150 | 2014 Lusail ARRC round |

## Racing history
### Formula One

| Year | Winning driver | Winning team |
| 2021 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
| 2023 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing |
| 2024 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing |

### MotoGP

| Year | MotoGP | 250cc/Moto2 | 125cc/Moto3 |
| 2004 | Sete Gibernau | Sebastián Porto | Jorge Lorenzo |
| 2005 | Valentino Rossi | Casey Stoner | Gábor Talmácsi |
| 2006 | Valentino Rossi | Jorge Lorenzo | Álvaro Bautista |
| 2007 | Casey Stoner | Jorge Lorenzo | Héctor Faubel |
| 2008 | Casey Stoner | Mattia Pasini | Sergio Gadea |
| 2009 | Casey Stoner | Héctor Barberá | Andrea Iannone |
| 2010 | Valentino Rossi | Shoya Tomizawa | Nicolás Terol |
| 2011 | Casey Stoner | Stefan Bradl | Nicolás Terol |
| 2012 | Jorge Lorenzo | Marc Márquez | Maverick Viñales |
| 2013 | Jorge Lorenzo | Pol Espargaró | Luis Salom |
| 2014 | Marc Márquez | Esteve Rabat | Jack Miller |
| 2015 | Valentino Rossi | Jonas Folger | Alexis Masbou |
| 2016 | Jorge Lorenzo | Thomas Lüthi | Niccolò Antonelli |
| 2017 | Maverick Viñales | Franco Morbidelli | Joan Mir |
| 2018 | Andrea Dovizioso | Francesco Bagnaia | Jorge Martín |
| 2019 | Andrea Dovizioso | Lorenzo Baldassarri | Kaito Toba |
| 2020 | Cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns | Tetsuta Nagashima | Albert Arenas |
| 2021 Qatar | Maverick Viñales | Sam Lowes | Jaume Masiá |
| 2021 Doha | Fabio Quartararo | Sam Lowes | Pedro Acosta |
| 2022 | Enea Bastianini | Celestino Vietti | Andrea Migno |
| 2023 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Fermín Aldeguer | Jaume Masià |
| 2024 | Francesco Bagnaia | Alonso López | David Alonso |

### FIA World Endurance Championship

| Year | Hypercar Winners | LMGT3 Winners |
| 2024 | No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport | No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing |
| 2024 | Kévin Estre André Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor | Alex Malykhin Joel Sturm Klaus Bachler |

### Superbike World Championship

| Year | Race | Winning rider | Winning team |
| 2005 | Race 1 | Troy Corser | Alstare Suzuki |
| 2005 | Race 2 | Yukio Kagayama | Alstare Suzuki |
| 2006 | Race 1 | James Toseland | Winston Ten Kate Honda |
| 2006 | Race 2 | Troy Corser | Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra |
| 2007 | Race 1 | Max Biaggi | Alstare Suzuki |
| 2007 | Race 2 | James Toseland | Ten Kate Honda |
| 2008 | Race 1 | Troy Bayliss | Ducati Xerox Team |
| 2008 | Race 2 | Fonsi Nieto | Team Alstare Suzuki |
| 2009 | Race 1 | Ben Spies | Yamaha WSB |
| 2009 | Race 2 | Ben Spies | Yamaha WSB |
| 2014 | Race 1 | Sylvain Guintoli | Aprilia Racing Team |
| 2014 | Race 2 | Sylvain Guintoli | Aprilia Racing Team |
| 2015 | Race 1 | Jordi Torres | Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils |
| 2015 | Race 2 | Leon Haslam | Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils |
| 2016 | Race 1 | Chaz Davies | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati |
| 2016 | Race 2 | Chaz Davies | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati |
| 2017 | Race 1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Racing Team |
| 2017 | Race 2 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Racing Team |
| 2018 | Race 1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK |
| 2018 | Race 2 | Race cancelled | Race cancelled |
| 2019 | Race 1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK |
| 2019 | SR | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK |
| 2019 | Race 2 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK |
| 2020 | Race cancelled | Race cancelled | Race cancelled |

### World Touring Car Championship

| Year | Race | Winning driver | Winning team |
| 2015 | Race 1 | José María López | Citroën Total WTCC |
| 2015 | Race 2 | Yvan Muller | Citroën Total WTCC |
| 2016 | Race 1 | Gabriele Tarquini | Lada Sport Rosneft |
| 2016 | Race 2 | Mehdi Bennani | Sébastien Loeb Racing |
| 2017 | Race 1 | Tom Chilton | Sébastien Loeb Racing |
| 2017 | Race 2 | Esteban Guerrieri | Honda Racing Team JAS |

### FIM Endurance World Championship

| Year | Manufacturer | Winning team | Winning riders |
| 2007 | Suzuki | Suzuki Endurance Racing Team [fr] | Vincent Philippe [fr] Matthieu Lagrive |
| 2008 | Yamaha | Yamaha Austria Racing Team | Igor Jerman [de] Steve Martin Steve Plater |
| 2009 | Yamaha | Yamaha Austria Racing Team | Igor Jerman [de] Steve Martin Gwen Giabbani [fr] |
| 2010 | Suzuki | Suzuki Endurance Racing Team [fr] | Vincent Philippe [fr] Sylvain Guintoli Freddy Foray [fr] |
| 2011 | Yamaha | GMT94 [fr] | David Checa Kenny Foray Matthieu Lagrive |
| 2012 | BMW | BMW Motorrad France Thevent | Sebastien Gimbert Damian Cudlin Erwan Nigon [es] |

### Motocross World Championship

| Year | Race | MX1 | MX2 | |
| 2013 | Race 1 | Clément Desalle | Jeffrey Herlings | |
| 2013 | Race 2 | Tony Cairoli | Jeffrey Herlings | |
| Year | Race | MXGP | MX2 | |
| 2014 | Race 1 | Maximilian Nagl | Dylan Ferrandis | |
| 2014 | Race 2 | Gautier Paulin | Jeffrey Herlings | |
| 2015 | Race 1 | Maximilian Nagl | Jeffrey Herlings | |
| 2015 | Race 2 | Maximilian Nagl | Jeffrey Herlings | WMX |
| 2016 | Race 1 | Tim Gajser | Jeffrey Herlings | Courtney Duncan |
| 2016 | Race 2 | Tim Gajser | Jeffrey Herlings | Courtney Duncan |
| 2017 | Race 1 | Tony Cairoli | Pauls Jonass | |
| 2017 | Race 2 | Tony Cairoli | Pauls Jonass | |

### Speedcar Series

| Year | Race | Winning driver | Winning team |
| 2009 | Race 1 | Gianni Morbidelli | Palm Beach |
| 2009 | Race 2 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Union Properties |

### GP2 Asia

| Year | Race | Winning driver | Winning team |
| 2009 | Race 1 | Nico Hülkenberg | ART Grand Prix |
| 2009 | Race 2 | Sergio Pérez | Barwa International Campos |