The 2006 Spanish Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio Telefónica de España 2006) 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 1 1 Fernando Alonso Renault1:15.816 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 1:16.0491:14.637 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 22 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: Notes – Jacques Villeneuve received a ten-place grid penalty due to an engine change. The engine was damaged during transport to Barcelona. – David Coulthard did not get any time in the first part of Q1 as a mechanical failure caused him to spin into the tyre barriers at the third corner.

Race The race was held on 14 May 2006 and was run for 66 laps.

Race report

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.

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 Driver Constructor Tyre 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 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 48 Broken wing 18 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 47 Engine 16 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 31 Electronics 6 4 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 17 Spin 12 23 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda 10 Driveshaft 20 Source:

Championship standings after the race

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

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

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

See also 2006 Catalunya GP2 Series round

References

External links