Madrid - Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso has been named a honorary member of the Spanish elite military unit La Legion, media reports said Tuesday.
General Juan Bautista Garcia Sanchez bestowed the honour on Alonso, who won his second successive drivers' title with Renault last month, while he was visiting Spanish United Nations troops at their headquarters in southern Lebanon on Monday.
"I am impressed by the courage of these people and the work they do," Alonso told the radio station Cadena Ser.
A military plane had brought Alonso to Lebanon along with journalists and technicians of the Cadena Ser.