The 2006 Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix

[Ed]

Fernando Alonso dominated the Spanish Grand Prix winning from Pole position and no other driver came close. Michael Schumacher had a good race managing to get ahead of Fisichella but the pace wasn't there to catch Alonso.
Fisichella didn't do himself many favours by dropping to third despite being on a strategy very similar to Alonso. He was lucky not to lose a place with his off track excursion.
Felipe Massa did reasonably well finishing 4th and setting the fastest lap time. His gap to Michael was less than half that of Fisichella to Alonso!

Kimi Raikkonen managed to get his car into 5th place but to be nearly a minute behind the race winner is very dissapointing for himself and McLaren.

Jenson Button managed to get ahead of Barrichello but like Kimi, it was a dissapointing race to finish that far behind.
Barrichello was a lap down!

Nick Heidfeld managed to get into the points and that is a good result for him and the team. He bounced back following the dissapointment of the Nurburgring.

Webber did well to finish 9th just out side the points while Trulli finished 10th holding up a few drivers including his team-mate who got a bit unpatient and tried to overtake him but lost out!

Rosberg finished 11th and nearly managed to take Trulli on the final lap!
Villeneuve on a single stop managed 12th after starting from the back.
The 2 Red Bulls were racing each other and finished 13th and 14th.

Montoya spun out of the race and beached his car on the kerb.
Interesting that the safety car wasn't deployed as his car was in a dangerous position and track marshals and the recovery tractor removed the car under yellow flags. That was dangerous!

Overtaking on the track ? I didn't notice any!

It seems that Renault and Ferrari are the only 2 teams that will be fighting for wins. Both McLaren and Honda were far behind today. They will probably be closer in other event but wins will be hard.
It is also likely that victories will swings between Renault and Ferrari depending on the tyres!

The race may have not been too exciting but it doesn't look like Renault will be able to run away with the Championship.
Of course all of Spain are celebrating with Alonso winning his first Spanish Grand Prix and Pedrosa winning the Chinese MotoGP.

Your thoughts and driver of the day

[Ed]

Selected Driver and Team Quotes following the race:

Fernando Alonso - Winner

This has been a day of so many emotions for me, and I think I will remember every moment. The first highlight was my drive with the King around the circuit in a Renault Megane this morning, then the start, the first laps when I could see we had the pace, around the pit-stops with the crowd jumping in the stands when Michael came out behind me, the final laps with so much emotion in the car. And finally the in-lap, soaking up the amazing atmosphere made by these brilliant supporters, my people. The R26 was perfect today ? we only made one small change for the balance, but I could push all the way through the race. I didn't get a good start and Fisico reacted better than me, but after that, everything was perfect. I expected Ferrari to be stronger in the race, but today, I think we got the maximum from the Renault-Michelin package. Thank you to everybody at the team, this is another dream come true.

Michael Schumacher - 2nd

The race result was decided in the first stint, as Fernando was able to pull out quite a gap, because I simply did not have the pace to stay with him. I was not held up by Giancarlo. After the lap times we had done earlier in the weekend, this was surprising, but we have seen before that in Barcelona, very small things can change your performance quite quickly. It seems that today, this had a negative effect on us and a positive one on Renault. Eight points is still good and I could say that while I was disappointed to have only won two points last Sunday, here I can be happy to have only lost two. There is still a long way to go and we will keep on fighting to try and win.

Giancarlo Fisichella - 3rd

We arrived in Spain looking to get on the podium and we did exactly that, even though Ferrari were strong this weekend. I got a fantastic start and things were close with Fernando into the first corner, but he had the advantage and I let him go. After that, the balance of the car was not perfect, and so even though I was pulling away from Michael in the stint, it was not enough to stay ahead at the stops. We made some changes to give less oversteer and so when I came out behind him, I was pushing hard, and made a small mistake which put me in the gravel at Turn 3. But I didn't lose a position, and then just pushed hard to keep Massa behind in the second stops. We had a good pace in that stint, and I kept third quite easily, then looked after everything to the finish. This was a good race for me, and a strong way to bounce back from the last races. I am very optimistic for Monaco, one of my favourite circuits.

Felipe Massa - 4th

The car worked well and our pace was what we expected, but today, our rivals were simply a bit quicker than us! I had some traffic in a few crucial phases of the race and that's one of the reasons I could not close on Giancarlo to try and get past him in the run of pit stops. Overall, we have picked up some important points for the championship.

Kimi Raikkonen - 5th

A rather uneventful race for me. I made a good start where I managed to get up from ninth to fifth and that was all the progress I was able to make. It was simply not possible to keep up with the Renaults and the Ferraris this weekend and we will spend the time before the Monaco Grand Prix looking at ways to improve.

Jenson Button - 6th

The car worked well and it was pretty much a faultless race, although I was behind Rubens in the first stint and Raikkonen was able to pull away. As soon as I had clear air the car worked very well and the balance was good - probably the best it has been since Malaysia. I was quite happy, reeling in Raikkonen every lap by a tenth or two tenths but it would have been a closer fight had I not been hampered by problems that stemmed from yesterday's qualifying. I'm looking forward to Monaco and testing at Vallelunga next week in preparation for that race.

Rubens Barrichello - 7th

It was a tough race but two cars in the points is not a bad result considering the strength of the competition. I lost a place off the start and then lost a bit of time because of some fuel pressure problems on my in-lap. After that, things ran pretty much according to plan, apart from a vibration in the last stint which again lost me some time. Now we have to focus on improving for Monaco because it's a track where we can be strong.

Nick Heidfeld - 8th

I am very happy. The goals we set for ourselves were to be in the top ten in qualifying and in the points in the race, and we achieved both of these. For me it is very important to be back to normal again. The steps we have taken are working and obviously we found what the problems were from Imola and the N?rburgring. My start wasn?t good, but I was able to defend tenth and the balance of the car was okay for the entire race distance. It was important to overtake Rubens Barrichello. At this point in the race his car was heavy and mine was light. If he had held me off I would not have made it into the points, but I overtook him on the outside in turn one, which is always fun.

Teams

Renault - Flavio Briatore

Renault scored an incredible team result this afternoon. Fernando and Giancarlo were perfect, we made the right choices with the strategy and beat Ferrari fair and square. Apart from Renault and Ferrari, the other teams just didn't seem to have the pace to stay with us today. This is a fantastic day for all of Renault, to win in Spain with Fernando, and to have both our drivers on the podium: it is a real team win. We must thank Michelin as well. I had been a bit pessimistic coming here, but this race showed they are pushing hard to win the championship, which is what we need through the summer. Congratulations to Elf also on their hundredth victory with Renault. We know there are many more still to come.

Ferrari - Jean Todt - To be added

We were expecting a very close race and that's what we got, although obviously we were hoping it would work out in our favour. Nevertheless, this weekend confirmed we are competitive, even if today, we have to admit our closest rivals were stronger. We had opted for a strategy that meant carrying a bit more fuel at the start than those ahead of us on the grid, but it did not work out for us. All the same, Michael and Felipe picked up thirteen points which are very valuable and consolidate our positions in both championships. Now we have to put a great deal of effort, along with our technical partners, first and foremost Bridgestone, to be even more competitive in the next few races.

McLaren - Norbet Haug

To be the third team behind Renault and Ferrari again and the gap to the leaders is a disappointment that we have to change. Kimi made a perfect start to improve from ninth to fifth but the overall pace of his car was not fast enough and he delivered what was possible today. Juan Pablo was on a one stop strategy but he spun out of a possible points result the cause of which we will investigate. Our attention is now on improving our technical package during the next races.

Honda - Gil de Ferran

We scored some more points, this time with both cars, which is very positive. While we are not as fast as we would like to be, we had a good battle with Raikkonen right through to the end and made the most of what we had. The day went relatively smoothly without any major dramas and both drivers pushed extremely hard. As well as the next race in Monaco potentially suiting our cars better, we go to Vallelunga next week to evaluate some improvements. Our focus is on closing the gap.

BMW Sauber - Mario Theissen

As usual in Barcelona it was a race with not a lot of overtaking and this time with not a lot of incidents either. Our drivers with their different strategies had problem free and mistake free races. Nick managed to go from tenth to eighth and collected one important point. Jacques made up ten positions and came in 12th with his one stop strategy. During this season we have collected points in four out of six races and we are satisfied with this.

Williams - Sam Michael

It?s obviously a pretty disappointing result to finish outside of the points. Both cars finished which is good, but we will go away from here and make sure we have significantly better performance in Monaco. Mark and Nico had good starts but we lost out on the first lap and from that point on spent most of the race in slower traffic, which is pretty difficult to recover from at Barcelona.

Toyota - Tsutomu Tomita

It looks like we will have to spend a lot of time analysing what went wrong today. On Friday and Saturday the car, the engine and the tyres were all working well and things were looking good. But today's race pace ended up very similar to what we had last week at the N?rburgring and we have to understand why we could not race at the speed of the top teams. First we have to learn why our starts were so poor because that was one of the causes of the issues we had in the race. We also have to analyse Jarno's car performance to find out why he struggled for the second race in a row. We will need to investigate the causes when we arrive back in Cologne. Finally we have to understand why our two drivers had a collision. At Toyota our philosophy is very much based around racing. We are a race team and that means our drivers have to be free to race - but with one limit. Based on the results of our investigations into everything that happened today we will seek to improve for the next race. We will have a busy evening and a busy week ahead.

Red Bull - Christian Horner

It's the first time since Bahrain that we've got two cars to the finish. Christian's pace in the first sector of the race was respectable, but with no new tyres available for his second and third stint, he dropped away from Rosberg who he'd been closing in on at the start. Starting from the back of the grid, David was always in for a long afternoon, although he had a good first lap to clear both the Midlands and Super Aguris. As a team, we now need to build on today's race finishes and work on the general pace of the car to start moving forward from here.

Toro Rosso - Gerhard Berger

It's the first time we did not get a single car across the finish line. That's racing. Scott had an engine failure and Tonio had a hydraulic problem. In terms of race pace, once again we are in what seems to be our usual position.

MF1 Racing - James Key

We had hoped for a more competitive performance, but to be fair, this is a circuit that has traditionally been difficult for us. The mix of straights and low-speed corners work against each other in the way you have to set up a car. But some teams manage to do it and this weekend we haven't really done as much as we'd hoped. So, yes, that's a bit frustrating. Being caught behind slower cars meant that we got lapped earlier than we would have normally, and that took a lot of our race time away - roughly two seconds per lap. Once we got caught in that situation, the blue flags killed the lap times further, because our drivers had to slow down and move off the line to let the leaders by. Tiago did a good job to make it to the finish and he was generally pretty consistent. We had a strategy for Christijan which we felt was the right direction to go, given his position on the grid, but the issues he encountered during the race put paid to those ideas. He either hit a kerb or got hit by someone else's flying bodywork; we'll have to analyse the damage to see what it was.

Super Aguri - Aguri Suzuki

It was a busy race for us and Taku did a great job, so I am pleased that he passed the chequered flag. Franck did very well at the start and showed a good performance until he had to retire due to a drive shaft problem. I hope that we will be able to provide a better car for him as soon as possible. We wanted both cars to finish the race today so it is little disappointing, but we have learned a lot from this race and are confident that we are continuing to improve this car for the coming races. All in all, I am glad that our car finished the race today and we look forward to heading to Monaco.

[JayVee]

A convincing win from Alonso He made his teammate and the rest of the field look ordinary
Michael wasn't happy at all
McLaren and Honda Are they really championship contenders ? That is sad as I would have liked to see at least one of those teams up there as well.

Well done Alonso

[Kapel]

Nice drive By Alonso

Michael did goodto overtake Fisi & secure 8 points.

Fisi & Massa did their best,& Kimi start was phenomenal!

Worth mentioning is Nick's 8th place,excellent long run to secure this position.

Rest were ordinary

[Snowy]

Nice drive By Alonso

Michael did goodto overtake Fisi & secure 8 points.

Fisi & Massa did their best,& Kimi start was phenomenal!

Worth mentioning is Nick's 8th place,excellent long run to secure this position.

Rest were ordinary

Jenson's lap times during the mid part of the race were very consistent and fast not as fast as the Renaults and Ferraris and could've been far more of a threat to Kimi had he not been stuck behind Rubens for the first stint. Basically Jenson and Kimi were driving flat out during the middle and end of the race but their cars are not that fast! Perhaps next race they'll have flexy wings

[Snowy]

Who voted for Rubens?

Come out of the closet/step away from the vehicle You will not be harmed

[Julian Mayo]

Who voted for Rubens?

Come out of the closet/step away from the vehicle You will not be harmed

perhaps their pointer slipped.

None of them deserved a vote. This race epitomised what is wrong with F1.
It would have been more fun watching a funeral procession.
Basically the drivers got into their cars, drove around and around in order of vehicle performance, finished, pocketed another huge cheque and went home. Whoopybloodydo. Another triumph to Max.

[Andre_Brasil]

Apologies for not being able to cover the race. We had some major technical problems

Fernando Alonso won the race ahead of Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella. Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld made the top 8.

Full Results

Hey, Ed, apologies accepted!
Probably you felt asleep... I almost did it too!

Men, what a booooring race. The only fun I had was watching the Formula1 site getting lost and telling MS was out of the race.

Kudos to Alonso/Renault/Michelin.
Unbelievable start from Kimi.
And that's all

[<T-K>]

Well, Montoya spun....and thats about as good as it got....

So Maybe I prefer to watch Alonso win than Shumi....But they should at least fight for it.....

oh yeah..... ..........My vote goes to Heidfeld...Just because it does....

[Bundy]

good race from FA & MS. Everyone else, NO COMMENT.

Renault - Look the goods
Ferrari - Are the only real challenger
McLaren - Good start from Kimi.Thats it! Unless they improve dramatically they can't win.
Honda - Falling behind after being right up there early in the year. Extremely disappointing. After having numerous early chances for a win they now have no hope.
Williams - Are going backwards almost as fast as Honda. Linking up with Cosworth is starting to bite them on the backside!!
Toyota - location STRUGGLETOWN
BMW - Improving SLOWLY
RedBull, ToroRosso, SuperAguri,Midland - Who cares!!!!

Otherwise, BORING!!!!!!

[BlinkyBill]

That was a race where the number 1s really stood out against the number 2's in Renault, Ferrari and Mclaren.

Renault - simply too good at the moment.
Ferrari look good for a title threat.
Mclaren . . . its too late now, not now that they have to fight both Ferrari and Renault for the wins, unlike last year when they only had one competitor.

Best of the rest? Hard to say. I think Williams look better in race trim than Honda, but Honda are better in Qualy trim . . . and Qualy trim is invaluable in this setup. The mid-ranked teams that get into Session 3 all long-fueled for fear of the 2 Williams and Mclaren jumping them from just behind . . . I think this will be a sign of things to come.

[Andre_Brasil]

Who voted for Rubens?

Come out of the closet/step away from the vehicle You will not be harmed

perhaps their pointer slipped.

None of them deserved a vote. This race epitomised what is wrong with F1.
It would have been more fun watching a funeral procession.
Basically the drivers got into their cars, drove around and around in order of vehicle performance, finished, pocketed another huge cheque and went home. Whoopybloodydo. Another triumph to Max.

Definitely it wasn't me

I was really happy on Saturday when he outqualified Button, but it seems that his car simply hold Button during the 1st stint.
I'm pretty sure the "fuel pressure" problem he had on his in-lap for the 1st pit stop was a honorable way to let Button try to catch Kimi. Unfortunately for Honda and for the race watchers was too late.

Anyhow, with the current aerodynamics there must be a slow corner before a straight to allow overtaking.

Maybe Monaco can offer a little bit more of fun as so many teams are optimistic. It will demand some balls from the drivers though and with the current points award they tend to be more conservative.

Except Ralf, but he is nuts.

[Julian Mayo]

Who voted for Rubens?

Come out of the closet/step away from the vehicle You will not be harmed

perhaps their pointer slipped.

None of them deserved a vote. This race epitomised what is wrong with F1.
It would have been more fun watching a funeral procession.
Basically the drivers got into their cars, drove around and around in order of vehicle performance, finished, pocketed another huge cheque and went home. Whoopybloodydo. Another triumph to Max.

Definitely it wasn't me

I was really happy on Saturday when he outqualified Button, but it seems that his car simply hold Button during the 1st stint.
I'm pretty sure the "fuel pressure" problem he had on his in-lap for the 1st pit stop was a honorable way to let Button try to catch Kimi. Unfortunately for Honda and for the race watchers was too late.

Anyhow, with the current aerodynamics there must be a slow corner before a straight to allow overtaking.

Maybe Monaco can offer a little bit more of fun as so many teams are optimistic. It will demand some balls from the drivers though and with the current points award they tend to be more conservative.

Except Ralf, but he is nuts.

Drivers with "balls"
DC
MW
MS
Nico
?????????????????????????

[GhoGho]

Who voted for Rubens?

Come out of the closet/step away from the vehicle You will not be harmed

Was supposed to be for Nick

Now i realy qualify as an idiot

Duck, here come the comments

[Julian Mayo]

Who voted for Rubens?

Come out of the closet/step away from the vehicle You will not be harmed

Was supposed to be for Nick

Now i realy qualify as an idiot

Duck, here come the comments