2006 San Marino Grand Prix

  2006 San Marino Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One season
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Date	April 23, 2006
Official name	XXVI Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.933 km (3.065 mi)
Distance	62 laps, 305.609 km (189.897 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:22.795
Fastest lap
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:24.569 on lap 23
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Third	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2006 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the XXVI Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino) was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy on 23 April 2006. The 62-lap race was the fourth round of the 2006 Formula One season, and the 26th running of the San Marino Grand Prix. It was won by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher, who had started from pole position. It was both his and Ferrari's first win of the season, thus effectively starting their respective championship bids. Championship leader Fernando Alonso finished second for the Renault team, whilst Juan Pablo Montoya completed the podium with third position for McLaren.

As a consequence of the race, Schumacher improved his position in the Drivers' Championship from fourth to second. Alonso lengthened his lead in the standings from 14 to 15 points. Kimi Räikkönen remained in third, 3 points behind Schumacher, whilst his teammate Montoya elevated himself ahead of Button into fifth place as a result of his podium finish. Alonso's Reanult teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, dropped to fourth place but still helped to extend the team's lead to 18 points over McLaren in the Constructors' Championship. Ferrari were then 3 points behind McLaren, on a total of 30 points, 15 more than fourth-placed Honda, and 20 more than fifth-placed BMW Sauber.

It was Schumacher's seventh victory at the San Marino Grand Prix, and his fifth win at Imola in six years. It is also the last time to date that the San Marino Grand Prix has been held.

Report

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		none

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher took pole position, and in doing so, broke Ayrton Senna's record of 65 poles.

Race

On the first lap, Alonso passed Barrichello at the Tamburello curve. Like the previous Grand Prix, the race started with an accident, this time in the Villeneuve curve. The Super Aguri team's driver Yuji Ide hit MF1's Christijan Albers, putting the Dutchman's car into a series of rolls that left it upside down. Albers was unhurt and Ide was able to continue after replacing his damaged front wing, although he later retired on lap 23. He was reprimanded by the stewards and warned over his future conduct. This incident also formed part of the evidence that led the FIA to withdraw Ide’s superlicence later in the season. The Safety Car was deployed for two laps.

Michael Schumacher appeared to have a clear lead coming up to the first set of pit stops, although things started to go wrong after that. His car developed graining in its tyres, which slowed him down considerably. Alonso gained significantly on Schumacher, but could not pass him. The Imola circuit is renowned for being difficult to overtake on.

The race continued normally for some laps, until Toyota driver Jarno Trulli entered the pits to retire following a steering problem. Tonio Liuzzi had a problem and spun his Toro Rosso car in the Variante Alta, a corner which had recently been revised.

Honda driver Rubens Barrichello started the first round of pit stops, on lap 14. His stop lasted 15 seconds, which dropped him to 13th place. Michael Schumacher came into the pits on lap 20, temporarily giving Renault's Fernando Alonso the lead.

Lap 30 saw Honda's Jenson Button make his second stop. The refuelling nozzle got stuck and Button, thinking it had been removed, pulled away from the pits, tearing the nozzle from the refuelling rig. He was delayed in the pitlane while the Honda mechanics removed the nozzle from his car.

By the halfway point of the race, Ferrari began experiencing problems, specifically tyre degradation. Eight laps were enough for Alonso to bring down the 10 second difference between himself and Schumacher. The duel that took place during the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix was to be repeated, this time with Schumacher in the lead.

Lap 41 saw Alonso pit for a second time, ahead of Schumacher. Alonso's out lap was not good enough to put himself in front of Schumacher, so their positions remained the same. Alonso chased hard, but a mistake by running wide into a corner left Schumacher a clear path for the last few laps to win. Meanwhile, David Coulthard had a driveshaft problem and retired on lap 47.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:24.598	1:22.579	1:22.795	1
2	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:24.480	1:23.749	1:22.988	2
3	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:24.727	1:23.760	1:23.242	3
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:24.884	1:23.595	1:23.702	4
5	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:23.536	1:23.743	1:23.709	5
6	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:24.370	1:23.565	1:23.772	6
7	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.960	1:23.760	1:24.021	7
8	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.259	1:23.190	1:24.158	8
9	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:24.446	1:23.727	1:24.172	9
10	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:24.992	1:23.718	1:24.795	10
11	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:24.434	1:23.771		11
12	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:25.081	1:23.887		12
13	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:24.495	1:23.966		13
14	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:24.849	1:24.101		14
15	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:25.410	1:24.129		15
16	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:24.879	1:24.520		16
17	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:25.410			17
18	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:25.437			18
19	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:26.820			19
20	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:27.088			20
21	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:27.609			21
22	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	1:29.282			22
Source:[1][2]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	62	1:31:06.486	1	10
2	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	62	+2.096	5	8
3	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	62	+15.868	7	6
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	62	+17.096	4	5
5	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	62	+17.524	8	4
6	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	62	+37.739	10	3
7	12	Jenson Button	Honda	62	+39.635	2	2
8	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	62	+40.200	11	1
9	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	62	+45.511	6
10	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	62	+1:17.851	3
11	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	62	+1:19.675	13
12	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	62	+1:22.370	12
13	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	61	+1 Lap	15
14	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	61	+1 Lap	16
15	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	61	+1 Lap	18
16	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	60	+2 Laps	19
Ret	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	47	Driveshaft	14
Ret	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	44	Accident	21
Ret	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	40	Hydraulics	17
Ret	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	23	Suspension	22
Ret	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	5	Steering	9
Ret	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	0	Accident	20
Source:[3]

Championship standings after the race

Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Drivers' Championship standings.[4] Pos Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 36 2 2 Michael Schumacher 21 3 Kimi Räikkönen 18 2 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 15 1 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 15

Constructors' Championship standings[4] Pos Constructor Points 1 Renault 51 2 McLaren-Mercedes 33 3 Ferrari 30 4 Honda 15 5 BMW Sauber 10

References

External links

• Detailed San Marino Grand Prix results (archived)

Coordinates: 44°20′38″N 11°43′00″E / 44.34389°N 11.71667°E / 44.34389; 11.71667