Spaniards have prided themselves on their open-minded attitudes since emerging from a four-decade dictatorship in the late 1970s, but a series of racist incidents - of which the abuse suffered by Lewis Hamilton is only the latest - have caused Spaniards to question whether they are so tolerant after all.

In October the country was shocked by a surveillance video from a Barcelona commuter train showing a drunken Spanish youth kicking a 16-year-old Ecuadorean girl in the face as he talked on his mobile phone. The shaven-headed male, identified as Sergi Xavier M.M, was unapologetic when he was tracked down by the media.

Spanish sport has also been hit by allegations of racism. The national football team was fined by Fifa in 2004 after Spanish fans made monkey noises at black players in the England team. The event came after Luis Aragonés, the Spain coach, called Thierry Henry, the France striker, a “black s***”. He denied that his term was racist and refused to apologise.

Despite the perception abroad that Spain suffers from a serious problem of racism, the Spanish Government insists that there is little cause for concern. “Spanish society does not show a racist tendency,” Estrella Rodríguez, the government official charged with dealing with the issue, said after the attack on the Ecuadorean. “What happened in Barcelona is an isolated incident that cannot be tolerated, but the signs are that society is adapting to immigration in a mature way.”

Yesterday, the Spanish media all but ignored the controversy over Hamilton's treatment in Barcelona. On the internet, however, a furious debate was raging about the incident, with some condemning the fans' behaviour and others saying that Hamilton had deserved the abuse because of his comments about Fernando Alonso, his Spanish team-mate at McLaren last year.