| 2006 European Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 5 of 18 in the2006 Formula One World Championship
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 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 | Renault | ||||
| Time | 1:29.816 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | |||
| Time | 1:32.099 on lap 39 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Renault | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2006 European Grand Prix (formally the2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe)[2] was aFormula One motor race held at theNürburgring inNürburg,Germany on 7 May 2006. The 60-lap race was the fifth round of the2006 Formula One season. It was won byFerrari driverMichael Schumacher who took his second victory of the season. PolesitterFernando Alonso finished in second position for theRenault team, whilst the second Ferrari ofFelipe Massa achieved his first podium finish of the season with third place.
Franck Montagny made his Formula One début, becoming the firstFrench F1 driver sinceOlivier Panis at the2004 Japanese Grand Prix.
The event was held at theNürburgring for the 36th time in the circuit's history. It was the 11th edition of theEuropean Grand Prix at this venue and the fifth round of the 2006 championship.
Fernando Alonso had been leading the championship since the get-go and had already gathered 36 points.Michael Schumacher's thrilling victory inImola had lifted him into second place with 21 points.Kimi Räikkönen was in third with 18 points.
Franck Montagny was originally scheduled to act as the third driver forSuper Aguri,[3] but was promoted to a race seat[4] after team driverYuji Ide had hisFIA 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.
Threefree practice sessions were held.[6] The first and second session were headed byWilliams's third driverAlexander Wurz, before the third and most representative session saw theFerraris ofMichael Schumacher andFelipe Massa top the timings.
The bottom 6 teams in the2005 Constructors' Championship andSuper 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 |
Thequalifying session was affected by ared flag situation appearing duringQ1 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.
The race was held on 7 May 2006 and was run for 60 laps.[9]
Fernando Alonso kept his lead at the start.Felipe Massa challenged his teammate for second, butMichael Schumacher held on through the first corner.Ralf Schumacher hitVitantonio Liuzzi, who then collided withDavid Coulthard. Liuzzi was left stranded on track, which brought out thesafety car. Coulthard recovered to do apit stop but retired a lap later. The safety car was deployed for three laps.[1][9]
At the restart,Kimi Räikkönen passedJenson Button for fourth but little else changed in the order. The front runnerspitted on laps 17 and 18 and kept their relative positions. Alonso and Schumacher tradedfastest laps until theRenault driver pitted on lap 38. TheGerman was now in free air and pushed hisFerrari for three more laps. He rejoined the race a whopping five seconds ahead of hisSpanish 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.
| 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] | |||||||
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| Previous race: 2006 San Marino Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2006 season | Next race: 2006 Spanish Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2005 European Grand Prix | European Grand Prix | Next race: 2007 European Grand Prix |
50°20′08″N6°56′51″E / 50.33556°N 6.94750°E /50.33556; 6.94750
