The 2006 United States Formula 1 Grand Prix

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:29 am

Ralf Schumacher retires!

Alonso moves up to 5th!

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:32 am

Lap 67 - Order: M Schumacher, Massa, Fisichella, Trulli, Alonso, Barrichello, Coulthard, Liuzzi and Rosberg

All other cars retired/crashed out

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:34 am

Coulthard is struggling but with 3 laps to go, he should still make it in 7th place.

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:36 am

Final lap!

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:38 am

Michael Schumacher wins the race ahead of Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:40 am

Trulli, Alonso, Barrichello, Coulthard and Liuzzi makes the top 8.

Rosberg is the only other finisher.

Full results

13 cars retired/crashed

RE30B#16 · Post by **RE30B#16** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:13 am

[quote="mlittle"]If I'm not mistaken, Michael Schumacher has won the USGP 4 times at Indy; currently he's one of five drivers to have 4 wins at the Brickyard in the track's history(the others are Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt, Jr. and Al Unser, Sr. who have 4 Indy 500 wins in USAC/CART races, plus Jeff Gordon, who has 4 Brickyard 400 wins in Nextel Cup races). Can you imagine the history to be made should Schumacher win the USGP for the fifth time today at Indy?[quote]

Not even close!!!

The F1 race is not a 500 miles race!! Big difference.

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:16 am

An impressive drive from Michael Schumacher to win the race ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa who led the race until the first round of stops.
Giancarlo Fisichella was also impressive out racing his team-mate Fernando Alonso.
Jarno Trulli starting from the pits and finishing 4th. That was a good performance too!
Alonso only managed 5th after struggling all weekend.
Barrichello managed to score points for Honda which is good!
Coulthard managed 7th ahead of the Toro Rosso of Liuzzi.
Rosberg struggled and finished 9th in a field of 9!

Bad luck for Villeneuve who was running strong until his engine gave up!

Disaster for McLaren with Montoya hitting the back of Raikkonen and causing the retirements of many other cars.

Your thoughts and driver of the day ?

Southernman · Post by **Southernman** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:28 am

Massa gets my driver of the day. I suspect he slowed down to let MS win on team orders.

He looked the better driver until the first round of pit stops and didn't seem to have a problem that would have slowed him as much as he did.

Montoya needs to be giving a round of f's for his driving at the start of the race.

RE30B#16 · Post by **RE30B#16** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:32 am

This is the one track on which Bridgestone outperforms the Michelin, and MS and Massa took full advantage of it!!

Great job, Fisico!!!

Great job, Trulli coming 4th after starting from pit row. He was a strong candidaate for driver of the day!!

Alonso is still the man!!!

A big

for Rubinho, Coulthard, Liuzzi and Rosberg!!

Where's Raikkonen, Button, and Montoya??!? I give up!!

Out!

Jim Watt · Post by **Jim Watt** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 7:30 am

Just back from a fine race (except, of course for a few difficulties on turn #1)

I was sitting right on the apex of turn one and saw, in real time of course, the ridiculous snafu of too many people trying to win the race on the first turn! In the replay broadcast on the maxi screen at the track, it was evident that Kimi had begun to take some evasive action --in response, one supposes to Heidfeld's header-- and was almost in the clear, but then got tagged from the back.

Since I was sitting right behind a row of Merc MacLaren fans, I was notified, once the complexion of the race appeared to be sorted out, that as soon as the Ferrari team performed their pit stops, Michael would be "pushed" ahead of his partner by the tactic of delaying the Italian's pit stop just enough. In fact, as I am sure the tape will show, if anything the Italian's pit work was even speedier than Michael's.

Ed's commentary (above) remarks that Massa's "out lap" was rather slow and I defer to his superior knowledge. But Michael's lap while Massa was in was VERY fast. And, as the race wore on, it was evident that Michael was smoother through turns one, two and three than his partner. In fact the difference was remarkable in this area for both the Ferrari cars and the Renault's. Michael and Giancarlo generally entered turns one and two very smoothly, their engine revs leaping up rapidly as they steered out of the turn. Both Felipe and Fernando, on the other hand, wobbled mightily in this area --and their engines also sounded rather sour, missing and seeming to back fire as they down shifted into turns two and three.

Those in my party decided that Fernando was having a terrible time with his balance and we couldn't decide whether his Michelein's were the wrong compound for the terrific heat today, or whether he was having some kind of gear box (or balance in the set up) difficulties.

Anyway, anyone OTHER than Fernando (or Kimi or Michael) would clearly have struggled with his car to even stay in the points, let alone finish as high as he did.

In a word, for driver of the day, I have to split my vote three ways: for Fernando for making the best of a terrible car (will he fire his engineers?), Felipe for driving like an old hand and not letting his excitement betray him into any false moves; and Michael for driving like an old hand and not getting bored like he did a couple of years back and spinning down in the chicane!

For idiot of the day? Well, there are lots of candidates. Let's just say that it won't surprise any of us here in Indy if we see JPM returning to the IRL next year.

Jim Watt

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:06 am

jacfan wrote:
<T-K> wrote:.....and down the 8'n Pole rankings I will slip......
I doubt that you will be alone

Welcome folks, there is plenty of room.........just make yourselves comfy, see you in the bar

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:13 am

Southernman wrote:Massa gets my driver of the day. I suspect he slowed down to let MS win on team orders. He looked the better driver until the first round of pit stops and didn't seem to have a problem that would have slowed him as much as he did.

Montoya needs to be giving a round of f's for his driving at the start of the race.

Same old same old, for Ferrari

Amjad · Post by **Amjad** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:52 pm

Julian, I wounder, if JPM was watching Ralf in his mirror so he miss the brak and hit Kimi. so Ralf is to blam for this accident.
I think most lucky driver of the day is Trulli, as he drive faultless race, and with no car between him and the two stopper driver with Alonso and Rubino holding Ralf and JV, he can make ground easily and even passing teammate in one stop. but I sad for ralf as this is 2nd time he lost point during last 9 laps (Europ GP 3 point + USA 4 point ).

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:57 pm

RE30B#16 wrote:
mlittle wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Michael Schumacher has won the USGP 4 times at Indy; currently he's one of five drivers to have 4 wins at the Brickyard in the track's history(the others are Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt, Jr. and Al Unser, Sr. who have 4 Indy 500 wins in USAC/CART races, plus Jeff Gordon, who has 4 Brickyard 400 wins in Nextel Cup races). Can you imagine the history to be made should Schumacher win the USGP for the fifth time today at Indy?
Not even close!!!

The F1 race is not a 500 miles race!! Big difference.

RE, it's still quite an achievement....even if the F1 race isn't as long as the Indy 500 or the Nextel Cup race; the fact that Schumacher still won his fifth USGP at Indy today is a grand achievement in and of itself.

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The 2006 United States Formula 1 Grand Prix

Driver of the day