MotoGP Spanish GP: Jerez Top Tips

Hola chicos! After returning from Jerez for the Spanish MotoGP race, I thought it would be good to share my top tips and experience as a first-time attendee.

1. Wear suncream

The sun in the south of Spain is incredibly strong, with almost every local themselves wearing a hat - and definitely lathered in sun cream from head to toe. I made the rookie mistake of not wearing a hat, and I returned home with a burnt scalp. I would recommend wearing suncream even in the early hours, and then reapplying throughout the day as the 8 UV that it reached on Sunday can certainly dissipate through the 50 SPF. It’s important to be covered when sitting in the same place for long hours, watching the track action.

2. Bring a packed lunch

As the majority of the food options are only located in the fanzone, it’s important that you have your own food on you and lots of snacks. Due to the high temperatures, it’s good to constantly have snacks to avoid becoming lethargic too. As well as this, the fanzone is a long walk away from the stadium section and most other viewing areas and leaves you at risk of losing your beloved viewing space for that day.

3. Pre-book train tickets

On the way back to Seville from Jerez on Sunday evening, all the trains were fully booked. Our recommendation is to keep checking the Renfe app, as cancellations are common. we luckily were able to secure some tickets for 8 pm, but we only booked these on the Saturday, leaving us at risk of having to get a taxi all the way there. I would say pre-book your train tickets as soon as you know you will be attending the Grand Prix via this route from Seville down to Jerez.

4. Bring an umbrella

There are lots of grassy banks around the outside of the circuit for you to relax and watch the track action from. However, without shade, these spots can heat up quite quickly, as mentioned above, the UV was very strong across the race weekend, and it's important to have an umbrella to bring a bit of relief to your core body temperature. Although I wouldn’t recommend using these in the grandstands, as we did see the civil guards tell a few people to take their umbrellas down as it was blocking those around them’s view.

5. Explore the inside of the circuit

Standing inside turn 5 was genuinely one of the best viewing experiences I have ever had. There were old tyres there stacked up, and everybody was using these to leverage themselves above the fencing and get an uninterrupted view of the bikes. As they lean into this corner, it’s incredible to see their apex and body position up close. You’re also able to watch them accelerate and wheelie down the back straight at insane speeds. One thing to note, this area is closed on Saturday and Sunday unless you have the corresponding ticket for the grandstand on the main straight or a paddock pass of course.

I’ll now quickly talk through my experience at the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix as a first time visitor. The race weekend started with a flight to Seville from London Gatwick on Thursday evening. Unfortunately, a few months prior, Ryan Air had notified us that they had cancelled our flights to Jerez airport directly due to ‘commercial reasons’, which would’ve allowed us to arrive on Friday morning.

Once in Spain, we stayed over in a hotel and on Friday, we made our way to Seville Santa Justa train station from our hotel, to then make our way down to Jerez de la Frontera. The train tickets were €11.50 for a single on this journey, we pre-booked them on the Renfe app, which is one of the national railway companies for mid-length journeys in Spain. The train route carries on down to Cadiz, providing it the perfect option to enjoy the beach as well as racing in the same weekend.

The Jerez de la Frontera train station is just a few metres from the shuttle bus to the circuit, which picked us up at the Plaza del Minotauro roundabout. We waited at this bus stop for a few minutes and noticed other MotoGP fans started to gather too, so we knew we were at the right place. There was a bus schedule on the bus stop which stated the bus arrives every 20 minutes. Once the bus arrived, we paid €2 each for a single ticket and got on. The bus takes a slightly different route to the circuit, driving past Jerez airport and skipping the traffic jams.

At the circuit, the security and ticket check was very quick, with the bus dropping us off just a few metres away from entrance 1. From here, the paddock was directly forward, the fanzone was left, and the route towards the stadium corners was right from here. Something to note, food is only sold in the fanzone on the outside of Turn 1. Elsewhere around the track, there’s only a small selection of food, including popcorn or baps. Despite this, there were many bars dotted around the track selling alcohol free beer as the event was sponsored by Estrella Galicia 0,0 and soft drinks and water.

On Friday, all general access ticket holders were allowed to access the inside of the track too. We sat in the grandstand on the start finish straight to watch Moto3 practice. This view was something beyond words, no other track I have visited have I felt this close to the motorcycles on the main straight. As they exit the last turn and make their way to the finish line, the riders get super close to the outside of the track closest to the grandstand, which is super scary to watch. For Moto2 and MotoGP practice, we made our way up to the inside of Turn 5, where we witnessed Alex Marquez's monster crash, which brought out the red flag. The inside of the track has an incredible view, even without a service road pass, and to access this with just a general access ticket was pretty extraordinary.

After Red Bull Rookies qualifying, we headed back to Jerez to check into our apartment. Unfortunately, the Spanish ‘manana’ attitude struck as there was a massive line for the shuttle bus with no buses in sight. Standing in the sweltering heat for well over 30 minutes now, my father, whom I attended the race with decided to join the taxi queue as there were a continuous stream of taxis being controlled by a civil guard. With the taxi queue moving a bit faster and no more buses in sight, I joined the taxi queue. When we were about 4th in the queue for a taxi, the civil guard took a phone call and left the queue, leaving us and the taxis without direction. This is when things took a turn for the worst and the queue dispersed, turning catching a taxi into a free-for-all and the only way we managed to get on ein the chaos was by joining forces with a random couple from Germany and riding with them down to Jerez de la Frontera train station.

We stayed in a lovely apartment just a few streets away from the town centre with nearby access to bars, restaurants, a pharmacy and supermarkets. We saw a lot of MotoGP staff and other fans around, marking this a great neighbourhood to stay in to continue the racing atmosphere during your visit. During the evening, I explored the town and saw lots of different events and performances going on, and lots of motorbike revving of course.

Making our way to the circuit on Saturday morning, we got the shuttle bus at 8 am, and there were already massive traffic jams. We ended up missing Moto3 Free Practice due to this, and the track was already full of fans. On this morning we decided to watch the rest of free practice and MotoGP qualifying from a seated area, and then during the lunch break we walked around the entire outside of the circuit. There are a lot of free viewing places included in your general access ticket to explore. For the sprint race, we watched it from a steep grassy bank above Turn 7, but it had a great vantage point over Turn 6 and the final corner. Travelling back to the apartment was easier today, with there already being 4 buses in a line waiting for us after the previous day’s disaster, and we bought our €2 tickets and headed back to the town centre for a well-deserved rest.

For race day, we knew the iconic fans would flock there super early, and as we didn’t have a designated seat, we decided to head to the circuit at 6 am. The stadium section was already full before the sun even came up, with us unable to sit where we had sat the previous day. My recommendation would be to try to arrive at the track for 6 am in order to get a good view for the day. As there was a Red Bull Rookies race early in the morning, it helped the time pass before the first race at 11 am. The atmosphere was unbelievable at this circuit, with 3 Spanish race winners across all categories, the passion from the Spanish fans was something I had never felt or witnessed before. It felt amazing to be a part of such an adoring crowd for MotoGP and pure racing. During the MotoGP race Marc Marquez crashed right in front of us, and remounted shortly behind Lorenzo Savadori. Every lap Marc was making up ground on the field thanks to the support from the fans; they clapped and cheered for him every time he rode past us as if he had never even gone down.

The rest of the trip consisted of us leaving the circuit, heading back to the town centre, grabbing some sherry to mark the occasion in Andalusia, eating dinner and getting the train up to Seville to check into our hotel ahead of our flight on Monday morning. We were able to fly out of Seville without any issues, only to find out a few hours later that the entire power grid had gone down in Spain and halted all international and national travel across the country.

I would recommend this race if you want to be a part of a super loud and passionate crowd, if you’re interested in turning the weekend into a bit of a holiday and chilling in Jerez with friends in the evening and soaking up the atmosphere. Maybe even extending the trip to spend a bit of extra time in Cadiz as well. It felt like a proper holiday atmosphere as everyone was enjoying the sun with their deck chairs and ice coolers.

Looking forward to seeing you out in Jerez next year!