page_title: Sport in Spain
section_title: Motorsports
hierarchical_section_title: Sport in Spain / Motorsports
caption_attribution_description: English: Fernando Alonso (of the Renault team) qualifying at the 2005 US Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Sport in Spain in the second half of the 20th century has always been dominated by football. Other popular sport activities include basketball, tennis, cycling, Cricket, handball, motorcycling, Judo, Formula One, water sports, rhythmic gymnastics, golf, bullfighting and skiing. Spain has also hosted a number of international events such as the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1982 FIFA World Cup. With Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon championships in 2008 and 2010, the tennis team winning the Davis Cup five times, basketball team winning the 2006 World Basketball Championship, the 2009 EuroBasket, and the 2011 EuroBasket, Fernando Alonso's back-to-back Formula One championships, the football team bringing home Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 trophies and Óscar Pereiro, Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre's 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 triumphs in Tour de France more recently, several papers have looked beyond Sastre's win to claim that Spain is enjoying something of a sporting "Golden Age"-similar to the Spanish 17th century achievements in painting and literature.
context_section_description: Spain has hosted four Grand Prix motorcycle racing events. They include the Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix, the Aragon motorcycle Grand Prix, and the Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix. Most events have received high attendance numbers.
  Notable Spanish grand prix motorcycling riders include Dani Pedrosa, Nicolás Terol, Álvaro Bautista, Emilio Alzamora, three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo and five-time champion Marc Márquez.  Notable retired racers include Àlex Crivillé, Jorge Martínez Aspar, Sete Gibernau, Sito Pons, and Ángel Nieto. Away from the track, Laia Sanz has won multiple women's world titles in motorcycle trials and enduro as well as several wins in the female class of the Dakar Rally. In 2018 Ana Carrasco became the first female motorcyclist to win a world title when she became Supersport 300 World Champion.
  In Formula One the two world championships of Fernando Alonso, in 2005 and 2006, have made the sport popular in Spain. It was, until 2012, the only country to host two Grands Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and the European Grand Prix on the Valencia Street Circuit, which was discontinued for 2013.
  In the World Rally Championship Spanish rally driver Carlos Sainz was crowned world champion in 1990 and 1992 and is ranked third with most wins with 26. Sainz retired from WRC in 2005 and switched to rally raid, where he won the 2010 Dakar Rally. Daniel Sordo has achieved best results since then by finishing third in the World Rally Championship in 2008 and 2009.
  In endurance racing, Fermín Vélez is two-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner and two-time World Sportscar Championship Group C2 champion, Marc Gené won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2010 12 Hours of Sebring, and Antonio García won the 2009 24 Hours of Daytona. Fernando Alonso won the 2018-2019 FIA WEC World Championship, taking wins at the 2018 and 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also won the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona.
caption: Alonso at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.
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