2006 European Grand Prix

The 2006 European Grand Prix (formally the 2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe)^[2] was a Formula One motor race held at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on 7 May 2006. The 60-lap race was the fifth round of the 2006 Formula One season. It was won by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher who took his second victory of the season. Polesitter Fernando Alonso finished in second position for the Renault team, whilst the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa achieved his first podium finish of the season with third place.

2006 European Grand Prix
Race 5 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Nürburgring
Race details
Date	7 May 2006
Official name	2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe
Location	Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.148 km (3.2 miles)
Distance	60 laps, 308.88 km (192 miles)
Weather	Sunny, 20°C[1]
Pole position
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:29.816
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:32.099 on lap 39
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Third	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
Lap leaders

Franck Montagny made his Formula One début, becoming the first French F1 driver since Olivier Panis at the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix.

Background

The event was held at the Nürburgring for the 36th time in the circuit's history. It was the 11th edition of the European Grand Prix at this venue and the fifth round of the 2006 championship.

Championship standings before the race

Fernando Alonso had been leading the championship since the get-go and had already gathered 36 points. Michael Schumacher's thrilling victory in Imola had lifted him into second place with 21 points. Kimi Räikkönen was in third with 18 points.

Driver changes

Franck Montagny was originally scheduled to act as the third driver for Super Aguri,^[3] but was promoted to a race seat^[4] after team driver Yuji Ide had his FIA Super License revoked^[5] for erratic driving in prior races that season. Ide was set to act as the team's third driver for this race, according to the team, until the revocation came down.^[4] The license revocation meant Ide could no longer participate in Formula One.

Practice

Three free practice sessions were held.^[6] The first and second session were headed by Williams's third driver Alexander Wurz, before the third and most representative session saw the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa top the timings.

Nick Heidfeld on the Friday before the race.

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2005 Constructors' Championship and Super Aguri were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race:

Constructor	Nat	Driver
Williams-Cosworth		Alexander Wurz
Honda		Anthony Davidson
Red Bull-Ferrari		Robert Doornbos
BMW Sauber		Robert Kubica
MF1-Toyota		Adrian Sutil
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani
Super Aguri-Honda		none

Qualifying

The qualifying session was affected by a red flag situation appearing during Q1 with 3½ minutes left on the timing monitors. Unfortunately, this was due to a software glitch in the timing system, and the session was quickly restarted. Jacques Villeneuve initially finished outside the top 16, but his time, set on a lap which he finished during the red flag, was reinstated. This placed him 7th in the session. Christian Klien had abandoned his lap, thinking it would not count, and he felt to have lost out through it.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:31.138	1:30.336	1:29.816	1
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:31.235	1:30.013	1:30.028	2
3	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:31.921	1:30.732	1:30.407	3
4	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:31.671	1:30.469	1:30.754	4
5	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.263	1:30.203	1:30.933	5
6	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:31.420	1:30.755	1:30.940	6
7	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:31.809	1:30.733	1:31.419	7
8	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.774	1:30.671	1:31.880	8
9	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:31.712	1:30.892	1:33.405	191
10	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:31.545	1:30.865	1:36.998	92
11	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:31.470	1:30.944		10
12	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:32.053	1:31.194		221
13	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:31.574	1:31.197		11
14	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:31.742	1:31.227		12
15	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:31.457	1:31.422		13
16	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:32.651	1:31.728		14
17	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:32.901			15
18	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:32.936			16
19	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:32.992			17
20	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:33.658			18
21	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:35.239			20
22	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	1:46.505			21
Source:[7]

Notes

• ^1 – Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg both had their engines changed, and were both dropped ten places on the grid on Sunday. They started the race in 19th and 22nd places respectively.^[8]
• ^2 – Jacques Villeneuve originally qualified 8th with a time of 1:31.542, but his fastest three laps from the third qualifying session were deleted due to blocking the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Race

The race was held on 7 May 2006 and was run for 60 laps.^[9]

Race report

Fernando Alonso kept his lead at the start. Felipe Massa challenged his teammate for second, but Michael Schumacher held on through the first corner. Ralf Schumacher hit Vitantonio Liuzzi, who then collided with David Coulthard. Liuzzi was left stranded on track, which brought out the safety car. Coulthard recovered to do a pit stop but retired a lap later. The safety car was deployed for three laps.^[1][9]

At the restart, Kimi Räikkönen passed Jenson Button for fourth but little else changed in the order. The front runners pitted on laps 17 and 18 and kept their relative positions. Alonso and Schumacher traded fastest laps until the Renault driver pitted on lap 38. The German was now in free air and pushed his Ferrari for three more laps. He rejoined the race a whopping five seconds ahead of his Spanish rival and managed to extend his advantage even further.

In the final stages, Massa and Räikkönen challenged Alonso for second place, but did not take any risks and the order was unchanged. Massa scored his first podium finish in Formula One.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	60	1:35:58.765	2	10
2	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	60	+3.751	1	8
3	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	60	+4.447	3	6
4	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	60	+4.879	5	5
5	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	60	+1:12.586	4	4
6	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	60	+1:14.116	11	3
7	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	60	+1:14.565	22	2
8	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	60	+1:29.364	9	1
9	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	59	+1 Lap	7
10	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	59	+1 Lap	13
11	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	59	+1 Lap	17
12	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	59	+1 Lap	18
13	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	59	+1 Lap	16
Ret	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	52	Engine	10
Ret	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	52	Engine	8
Ret	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	45	Hydraulics	20
Ret	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	29	Hydraulics	21
Ret	12	Jenson Button	Honda	28	Engine	6
Ret	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	28	Transmission	15
Ret	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	12	Hydraulics	19
Ret	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	2	Collision damage	12
Ret	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	0	Collision damage	14
Source:[10]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 44 2 Michael Schumacher 31 3 Kimi Räikkönen 23 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 18 2 5 Felipe Massa 15 Source: [11]

Constructors' Championship standings[10] Pos. Constructor Points 1 Renault 62 1 2 Ferrari 46 1 3 McLaren-Mercedes 38 4 Honda 19 5 BMW Sauber 11 Source: [11]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2006 European GP2 Series round