The Peninsula
Doha: The 2019 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies will start in Qatar next year, the world governing body has confirmed.
The five-stop championship will start with the Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally from Feb 21 to 26, according to details posted on the FIA website.
In recent years, the Qatar leg of the hugely popular series was held in April as the fourth round of the championship - by Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF).
The calendar has been finalised at the during the FIA Council Meetings in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, over the week.
The week-long FIA General Assembly meetings were attended by QMMF President Abdulrahman Al Mannai and QMMF Secretary General Abdul Razzaq Al Kuwari.
“The meetings were very good,” Al Mannai, who returned from Russia yesterday, said. Al Mannai met with FIA President Jean Todt and members of the motorsport family.
“We look forward to the opening round in Qatar. Our goal is to organise a top event as usual,” he added.
“We will see how this event develops further in the future. I think that there are more countries that will enter the championship in the future,” he said.
The second round of the championship will be held in the UAE from March 30 to April 4.
The third round will be staged in Turkmenistan (May 5-11) while the second-last round will move to Kazakhstan (May 26-June 1).
The fifth in final round will be held in Morocco with the Rallye du Maroc (Oct 4-8).
The FIA also announced the 2019 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
The 2019 championship will kick off In Russia with the Baja Russia-Northern Forest event from February 14-17.
The eight-stop championship will visit the UAE, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Jordan and Portugal where the series will conclude on October 26.
Qatar will also serve as the starting point for the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) in March next year.
The Qatar International Rally will be held from March 14 to 16, according to the FIA list of events posted on the official website.
Two-time Dakar Rally champion Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah is expected to headline both events in Qatar - the Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally and the Qatar International Rally.
Jordan will host the second round (April 25-27) while the championship moves to Lebanon for the third round (August 30-September 01).
Cyprus (September 27-29) and Kuwait (October 31-November 2) will be the hosts of the last two rounds of the five-stop championship.