cheste · Profile

Circuit Ricardo Tormo is a racing circuit in Cheste, in the province of Valencia, about 20 kilometres from the city. It opened on 19 September 1999 and has hosted the Valencian Community Grand Prix of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since then, an event that over time settled into its role as the season finale. It is named after Valencian rider Ricardo Tormo, a two-time 50cc world champion.

Construction and opening

Work began in 1998 in the Cambrillas area, on a plot of around 1.5 million square metres some 15 kilometres from Manises airport. Rather than following the classic European circuits, the design took North American oval venues as its model. The facility opened in September 1999 with room for 165,000 spectators, 125,000 of them seated. It has since undergone two major upgrades: the run-off areas were enlarged in 2004, and in 2012 the track was resurfaced and the safety zones were reworked again.

The rider behind the name

Ricardo Tormo won the 50cc world title in 1978 and in 1981, both times on a Bultaco. The first came as a member of the factory team; the second without works support, after he won all six races he entered. At home he collected seven Spanish titles, three in 50cc and four in 125cc. He died of leukaemia in Valencia in December 1998, only days after the circuit was presented to the public, and the venue was renamed Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo in his honour.

Layouts and records

The venue offers several configurations. The main one, the Grand Prix layout, is 4.005 kilometres long, has 14 corners and holds FIA Grade 2 status. There is also a 3.136-kilometre outer circuit with 11 corners, a 1.3-kilometre school track and a 3.376-kilometre, 15-corner variant first used by Formula E in 2021. The official race lap record on the full layout belongs to Andreas Zuber, set in a GP2 car in 2006. That same year Anthony Davidson, driving a Honda Formula 1 car in testing, posted the fastest lap ever recorded at Cheste.

The Valencian Community Grand Prix

The first edition, in 1999, was won in the 500cc class by Frenchman Régis Laconi on a Yamaha. Valentino Rossi won in 2003 and 2004, in the early MotoGP years, and Marc Márquez in 2014 and 2019. Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016) and Dani Pedrosa (2007, 2009, 2012 and 2017) share the most premier-class wins, four each. Counting his 125cc and 250cc victories, Pedrosa reaches seven, the highest total of any rider at the event. As the last scoring round of the year, the race has decided the championship on several occasions.

Titles decided at Cheste

In 2006 Nicky Hayden arrived at the final round trailing Valentino Rossi. The Italian crashed in the opening laps and the American finished third, enough to take the title by five points; the race went to Troy Bayliss, a Ducati wildcard. In 2020, a season shaped by the pandemic, Cheste hosted two consecutive Grands Prix: Joan Mir won the European GP and, a week later, seventh place in the Valencian race won by Franco Morbidelli gave Suzuki its first riders’ title in 20 years. Francesco Bagnaia was crowned there in 2022, ninth in a race won by Álex Rins in Suzuki’s farewell, and again in 2023, this time with victory, after Jorge Martín went down following contact with Marc Márquez.

Other championships

The circuit has staged the Superbike and Supersport World Championships from 2000 to 2010, the FIA GT Championship in 2000 and 2004, the World Touring Car Championship from 2005 to 2012, the DTM from 2010 to 2012 and GP2 in 2006 and 2007. The European Le Mans Series visited in 2007, GP3 held a round in 2013 and the NASCAR Euro Series has raced there since 2014. Formula E has used the track for pre-season testing since 2017 and ran the Valencia ePrix there in 2021. From 23 to 27 October 2024 it hosted the third edition of the FIA Motorsport Games.

The 2024 floods and the return

The floods of late October 2024, which killed more than 200 people in the region, forced the cancellation of that year’s Grand Prix, replaced by the Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona. Formula E also moved its pre-season testing to the Circuito del Jarama, where it ran from 5 to 8 November. The race returned to Cheste in 2025: on 16 November, Marco Bezzecchi led from start to finish for Aprilia, with Raúl Fernández second in a one-two for the manufacturer and Fabio Di Giannantonio third.