The 2006 Japanese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2006 Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One race held on 8 October 2006 at the Suzuka Circuit, in Suzuka, Japan. It was the seventeenth and penultimate round of the 2006 Formula One World Championship, and marked the 32nd running of the Japanese Grand Prix. It was won by Fernando Alonso, his last win for the Renault team before he moved to McLaren the following season.

It was the 20th Grand Prix to be held at Suzuka. It was the first Formula One race to be filmed and broadcast in high-definition television. However the Fuji Television broadcast was only available in Japan.ZAKZAK

Report

Practice and qualifying

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.

Team Nat Driver Williams-Cosworth Alexander Wurz Honda Anthony Davidson Red Bull-Ferrari Michael Ammermüller BMW Sauber Sebastian Vettel Spyker MF1-Toyota Adrian Sutil Toro Rosso-Cosworth Neel Jani Super Aguri-Honda Franck Montagny

Race Felipe Massa started the race from pole, but Michael Schumacher passed him on lap 3 to take the lead. Meanwhile, Alonso was struggling to get past the Toyotas of Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. By lap 10 Alonso was 5.4 seconds off the leader. On lap 15 Alonso managed to pass Massa in the pitstops and chased Schumacher. He succeeded in closing the gap from 5.4 seconds on lap 10 to 4.2 seconds by lap 27 only for it to open up to 5.9 seconds by lap 34 after the two drivers encountered backmarkers. The race was crucial in the fight for the World Championship, as whoever finished ahead of the two would take the championship lead into the final race. On lap 37, after the two rivals had made their final pitstops, Schumacher's engine failed, his first engine failure since the 2000 French Grand Prix, giving the lead to Alonso, who went on to win the race. As a result, he needed only one point from the final race to secure the title.

, Alonso's win remains the last victory for a car running on Michelin tyres, as the manufacturer pulled out of Formula One at the end of the season. Third place finisher Giancarlo Fisichella dedicated to his best friend, Tonino Visciani, who had died on 5 October 2006 after a heart attack.

Classification

Qualifying Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 1 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:30.112 1:29.830 1:29.599 1 2 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:31.279 1:28.954 1:29.711 2 3 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:30.595 1:30.299 1:29.989 3 4 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:30.420 1:30.204 1:30.039 4 5 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:30.976 1:30.357 1:30.371 5 6 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:31.696 1:30.306 1:30.599 6 7 12 Jenson Button Honda 1:30.847 1:30.268 1:30.992 7 8 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:31.972 1:30.598 1:31.478 8 9 16 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:31.811 1:30.470 1:31.513 9 10 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:30.585 1:30.321 1:31.856 10 11 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.080 1:30.827 11 12 17 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:31.204 1:31.094 12 13 4 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.581 1:31.254 13 14 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:31.647 1:31.276 14 15 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1:31.741 1:31.943 15 16 19 Christijan Albers Spyker MF1-Toyota 1:32.221 1:33.750 16 17 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 1:32.252 17 18 15 Robert Doornbos Red Bull-Ferrari 1:32.402 18 19 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1:32.867 19 20 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:33.666 20 21 18 Tiago Monteiro Spyker MF1-Toyota 1:33.709 21 22 23 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda No time 22 Source: Notes – Sakon Yamamoto did not get time in Q1 due to technical problems.

Race

Driver Constructor Tyre Lap Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 53 1:23:53.413 5 10 2 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 53 +16.151 1 8 3 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 53 +23.953 6 6 4 12 Jenson Button Honda 53 +34.101 7 5 5 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 53 +43.596 11 4 6 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 53 +46.717 4 3 7 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 53 +48.869 3 2 8 16 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 53 +1:16.095 9 1 9 17 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 53 +1:16.932 12 10 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 52 +1 lap 10 11 4 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 52 +1 lap 13 12 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 52 +1 lap 8 13 15 Robert Doornbos Red Bull-Ferrari 52 +1 lap 18 14 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth 52 +1 lap 15 15 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 52 +1 lap 20 16 18 Tiago Monteiro Spyker MF1-Toyota 51 +2 laps 21 17 23 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda 50 +3 laps 22 18 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 48 Power steering 19 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 39 Accident 14 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 36 Engine 2 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 35 Gearbox 17 19 Christijan Albers Spyker MF1-Toyota 20 Driveshaft 16 Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 1 Fernando Alonso* 126 1 2 Michael Schumacher* 116 1 3 Felipe Massa 70 1 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 69 5 Kimi Räikkönen 61Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Renault* 195 2 Ferrari* 186 3 McLaren-Mercedes 105 4 Honda 78 5 BMW Sauber 36Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

References

External links

(archived)