| 2006 Spanish Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 6 of 18 in the2006 Formula One World Championship
| |||||
.svg) 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 | Renault | ||||
| Time | 1:14.648 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Felipe Massa | Ferrari | |||
| Time | 1:16.648 on lap 42 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Renault | ||||
| Second | Ferrari | ||||
| Third | Renault | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2006 Spanish Grand Prix (officially theFormula 1 Gran Premio Telefónica de España 2006)[3] was aFormula One motor race held on 14 May 2006 at theCircuit de Catalunya inMontmeló,Spain. It was the sixth round of the2006 Formula One season and the forty-eighthSpanish Grand Prix. The 66-lap race was won byFernando Alonso for theRenault team, from apole position start.Michael Schumacher finished second in aFerrari with Alonso's teammateGiancarlo Fisichella third.
As a consequence of the race, Alonso stretched his lead to fifteen points in theDrivers' Championship over Schumacher. Alonso's team, Renault, also increased their lead, but did so in theConstructors' Championship standings. This put them nineteen points ahead of Ferrari.
Before the race, Renault driverFernando Alonso led theDrivers' Championship with 44 points; Ferrari driverMichael Schumacher was second on 31 points. Behind Alonso and Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship,Kimi Räikkönen was third on 23 points in a McLaren, withGiancarlo Fisichella andFelipe Massa on 18 and 15 points respectively. In theConstructors' Championship, Renault were leading on 62 points and Ferrari were second on 46 points, with McLaren third on 42 points.
The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known asConstructors) wereRenault,McLaren,Ferrari,Toyota,Williams,Honda,Red Bull,BMW,MF1,Toro Rosso andSuper Aguri.
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 byFerrari'sFelipe Massa, the second byHonda's third driverAnthony Davidson and the third by Massa's teammateMichael Schumacher.[5]
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 |  | Giorgio Mondini |
| Toro Rosso-Cosworth | | Neel Jani |
| Super Aguri-Honda | - |
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 leaderFernando Alonso clinched his secondpole position of the season with a time of 1:14.648 and was joined on the front row byRenault teammateGiancarlo Fisichella.Michael Schumacher andFelipe Massa put theirFerraris on the second row of the grid.
The race was held on 14 May 2006 and was run for 66 laps.[7]
At the start, the first four remained in formation, althoughFelipe Massa was pressured byKimi Räikkönen, who had jumped up from ninth to fifth.Fernando Alonso managed to break away while teammateGiancarlo Fisichella held up the chasers. The first round ofpit 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 hisMcLaren on akerb. If thesafety 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 theMidlands and Schumacher lost time when he made a rare mistake on his own. TheGerman 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.
| 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] | |||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 2006 European Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2006 season | Next race: 2006 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2005 Spanish Grand Prix | Spanish Grand Prix | Next race: 2007 Spanish Grand Prix |
41°34′12″N2°15′40″E / 41.57000°N 2.26111°E /41.57000; 2.26111
