2006 Spanish Grand Prix

The 2006 Spanish Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio Telefónica de España 2006)^[3] was a Formula One motor race held on 14 May 2006 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. It was the sixth round of the 2006 Formula One season and the forty-eighth Spanish Grand Prix. The 66-lap race was won by Fernando Alonso for the Renault team, from a pole position start. Michael Schumacher finished second in a Ferrari with Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella third.

2006 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 6 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Circuit de Catalunya
Race details
Date	May 14, 2006
Official name	Formula 1 Gran Premio Telefónica de España 2006
Location	Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain[1]
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.627 km (2.875 miles)
Distance	66 laps, 305.256 km (189.75 miles)
Weather	Sunny, 28°C[2]
Attendance	131,200
Pole position
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:14.648
Fastest lap
Driver	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
Time	1:16.648 on lap 42
Podium
First	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Second	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Third	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault
Lap leaders

As a consequence of the race, Alonso stretched his lead to fifteen points in the Drivers' Championship over Schumacher. Alonso's team, Renault, also increased their lead, but did so in the Constructors' Championship standings. This put them nineteen points ahead of Ferrari.

Background

Championship standings before the race

Before the race, Renault driver Fernando Alonso led the Drivers' Championship with 44 points; Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was second on 31 points. Behind Alonso and Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship, Kimi Räikkönen was third on 23 points in a McLaren, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa on 18 and 15 points respectively. In the Constructors' Championship, Renault were leading on 62 points and Ferrari were second on 46 points, with McLaren third on 42 points.

Entrants

The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as Constructors) were Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, Toyota, Williams, Honda, Red Bull, BMW, MF1, Toro Rosso and Super Aguri.

Practice

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race: two on Friday, both lasting 90 minutes, and one on Saturday for 60 minutes.^[4] The first session was led by Ferrari's Felipe Massa, the second by Honda's third driver Anthony Davidson and the third by Massa's teammate Michael Schumacher.^[5]

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		Giorgio Mondini
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani
Super Aguri-Honda		-

Qualifying

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.^[4]

Championship leader Fernando Alonso clinched his second pole position of the season with a time of 1:14.648 and was joined on the front row by Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa put their Ferraris on the second row of the grid.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:15.816	1:15.124	1:14.648	1
2	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:16.046	1:14.766	1:14.709	2
3	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:16.049	1:14.637	1:14.970	3
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.359	1:15.245	1:15.442	4
5	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:16.266	1:15.258	1:15.885	5
6	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:16.234	1:15.164	1:15.885	6
7	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:16.174	1:15.068	1:15.976	7
8	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:16.054	1:15.150	1:16.008	8
9	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.613	1:15.422	1:16.015	9
10	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:16.322	1:15.468	1:17.144	10
11	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.685	1:15.502		11
12	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.195	1:15.801		12
13	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:17.213	1:15.804		13
14	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:16.066	1:15.847		221
15	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:16.627	1:15.928		14
16	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:17.105	1:16.661		15
17	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:17.361			16
18	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:17.702			17
19	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:18.024			18
20	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:18.920			19
21	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	1:20.763			20
22	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	No time			21
Source:[6]

Notes

• ^1 – Jacques Villeneuve started 22nd after taking a 10 spot penalty for an engine change. The engine was damaged during transport to Barcelona.

Race

The race was held on 14 May 2006 and was run for 66 laps.^[7]

Race report

The Renault cars of Alonso and Fisichella occupied the front row of the grid.

At the start, the first four remained in formation, although Felipe Massa was pressured by Kimi Räikkönen, who had jumped up from ninth to fifth. Fernando Alonso managed to break away while teammate Giancarlo Fisichella held up the chasers. The first round of pit stops was initiated by Alonso on lap 17. Fisichella followed him on lap 18 and Massa on lap 19.^[2]

Suddenly, Juan Pablo Montoya spun at high speed and beached his McLaren on a kerb. If the safety car was deployed, it would give Schumacher a big advantage, but Montoya's car was lifted away by a crane. Alonso lost time while passing one of the Midlands and Schumacher lost time when he made a rare mistake on his own. The German pitted on lap 23 and rejoined 10 seconds behind the race leader, but crucially just ahead of Fisichella.

The second round of pit stops did not lead to any changes in the leading pack and Alonso took his third win of the season, extending his championship lead to 15 points.

Race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	66	1:26:21.759	1	10
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	66	+18.502	3	8
3	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	66	+23.951	2	6
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	66	+29.853	4	5
5	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	66	+56.875	9	4
6	12	Jenson Button	Honda	66	+58.347	8	3
7	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	65	+1 Lap	5	2
8	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	65	+1 Lap	10	1
9	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	65	+1 Lap	11
10	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	65	+1 Lap	7
11	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	65	+1 Lap	13
12	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	65	+1 Lap	22
13	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	14
14	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	21
15	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	63	Hydraulics	15
16	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	63	+3 Laps	17
17	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	62	+4 Laps	19
Ret	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	48	Broken wing	18
Ret	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	47	Engine	16
Ret	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	31	Electronics	6
Ret	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	17	Spin	12
Ret	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	10	Driveshaft	20
Source:[8]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 54 2 Michael Schumacher 39 3 Kimi Räikkönen 27 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 24 5 Felipe Massa 20 Source: [9]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Renault 78 2 Ferrari 59 3 McLaren-Mercedes 42 4 Honda 24 5 BMW Sauber 12 Source: [9]

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

See also

• 2006 Catalunya GP2 Series round