2006 French Grand Prix

The 2006 French Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Grand Prix de France 2006)^[3] was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, near Magny-Cours, France on 16 July 2006.

2006 French Grand Prix
Race 11 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
The Nevers Circuit modified in 2003
Race details
Date	July 16, 2006
Official name	Formula 1 Grand Prix de France 2006
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.411[1] km (2.741 miles)
Distance	70 laps, 308.586[1] km (191.746 miles)
Weather	Sunny, 34°C[2]
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:15.493
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:17.111 on lap 46
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Third	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
Lap leaders

Michael Schumacher of Scuderia Ferrari took pole position for the race and went on to win it ahead of championship leader Fernando Alonso with Renault. It was the German's 88th win in Formula One.

Background

The event was held at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours for the 16th time in the circuit's history across the weekend of 14-16 July. The Grand Prix was the eleventh round of the 2006 Formula One World Championship and the 56th running of the French Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.^[4] This race also marked the centenary of the first French Grand Prix in 1906.

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Fernando Alonso was leading the championship, as he had been since the start, now with 88 points, compared to Michael Schumacher with 69. Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella had overtaken Kimi Räikkönen for third place with 43 points.

Practice

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race: two on Friday, both lasting 90 minutes, and one on Saturday for 60 minutes.^[5] The first and second sessions were led by BMW Sauber's third driver Robert Kubica and the third session was headed by both the team's regular drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld.^[6]

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		Sakon Yamamoto

Qualifying

Home driver Franck Montagny driving for Super Aguri. It would be his last outing for the team in the 2006 season.

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 15 minutes, and cars that finished the session 17th position or lower were eliminated from qualifying. The second part of the qualifying session lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of the qualifying session ran for 20 minutes which determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position. Cars which failed to make the final session could refuel before the race, so ran lighter in those sessions.^[5]

Michael Schumacher scored his 68th and final pole position. He had held the record for the most pole positions since surpassing Ayrton Senna at the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix and would hold it until Lewis Hamilton surpassed it at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:15.865	1:15.111	1:15.493	1
2	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.277	1:15.679	1:15.510	2
3	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:16.328	1:15.706	1:15.785	3
4	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:15.550	1:15.776	1:16.036	4
5	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:15.949	1:15.625	1:16.091	5
6	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.154	1:15.742	1:16.281	6
7	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:16.825	1:15.901	1:16.345	7
8	4	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.679	1:15.902	1:16.632	8
9	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.534	1:15.926	1:18.272	19
10	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:16.350	1:15.974	1:18.663	9
11	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.531	1:16.129		10
12	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:16.686	1:16.294		11
13	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:16.921	1:16.433		12
14	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:17.022	1:17.027		13
15	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:17.117	1:17.063		14
16	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:16.962	1:17.105		15
17	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:17.164			22
18	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:17.304			16
19	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:17.495			17
20	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:17.589			18
21	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	1:18.637			20
22	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:18.845			21
Source:[7]

Race

The race was held on 16 July 2006 and was run for 70 laps.^[8]

Race report

At the start, Fernando Alonso challenged Felipe Massa for second place, locking up at the first hairpin, but the Brazilian managed to hold on and protect his second place, as well as Michael Schumacher's lead. While several battles emerged in the midfield, Schumacher set a series of fastest laps to grow his lead out to 8 seconds over Alonso at the time that Massa pitted on lap 16.^[2]

After the first round of pit stops was completed, Schumacher led Massa by 6 seconds, with Alonso a further 5 seconds down the road. Jarno Trulli was fourth, but he was passed by Kimi Räikkönen on lap 26. Later in the race, Trulli would retire but his teammate Ralf Schumacher would end up finishing in that fourth position.

Alonso lost time behind backmarkers and was trailing Schumacher by 16 seconds when the German made his second stop. After Alonso had visited the pits for the second time, the gap had expanded to 26 seconds, with Massa still in between the rivals. When the Ferraris stopped for a third time, Alonso moved past Massa and conserved his tyres. He held on to second place and finished the race 10 seconds, but more importantly, just 2 points behind Schumacher.

Schumacher became the first driver in Formula One history to win the same Grand Prix on eight occasions (having previously won the French Grand Prix in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2004). Schumacher also achieved his 22nd career hat trick (pole position, win & fastest lap at the same race), also a record.

Race classification

The race was won by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	70	1:32:07.803	1	10
2	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	70	+10.131	3	8
3	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+22.546	2	6
4	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	70	+27.212	5	5
5	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+33.006	6	4
6	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	70	+45.265	7	3
7	4	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+49.407	8	2
8	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	69	+1 lap	11	1
9	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	69	+1 lap	9
10	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	69	+1 lap	14
11	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	69	+1 lap	16
12	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	69	+1 lap	12
13	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	69	+1 lap	22
14	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	68	+2 laps	19
15	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	68	+2 laps	15
16	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	67	+3 laps	20
Ret	12	Jenson Button	Honda	61	Engine	17
Ret	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	55	Wheel rim	10
Ret	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	39	Brakes	4
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	18	Engine	13
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	11	Accident	18
Ret	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	0	Transmission	21
Source:[9]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 96 2 Michael Schumacher 79 3 Giancarlo Fisichella 46 4 Kimi Räikkönen 43 5 Felipe Massa 42 Source: [10]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Renault 142 2 Ferrari 121 3 McLaren-Mercedes 71 4 Honda 32 1 5 Toyota 21 Source: [10]

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

See also

• 2006 Magny-Cours GP2 Series round