The 2006 European Formula 1 Grand Prix

[Ed]

Montoya slows!

Ralf Schumacher slows! (engine!)

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Lap 55 - Top 8: M Schumacher, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Fisichella, Rosberg and Villeneuve

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Barrichello, Fisichella and Rosberg are fighting for 5th!

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Raikkonen just 1.1 seconds behind Massa who is in 3rd!

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Raikkonen right behind Massa now!

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2 laps remaining!

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Massa and Raikkonen are closing in on Alonso

Final lap!

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Michael Schumacher wins the race with Alonso in second and Massa in 3rd!

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Raikkonen is 4th ahead of Barrichello

Fisicehella, Rosberg and Villeneuve make the top 8.

Full Results

[Ed]

A good race between Michael and Alonso. It looks like the fight for the championship will be between those two!
Michael didn't let Alonso get away and got him at the second round of stops.
Massa did well finishing 3rd and Raikkonen managed 4th.

Behind those 4 Barrichello finished 5th over a minute behind.
Fisichella managed 6th with Rosberg finishing an impressive 7th after starting 22nd!
Villeneuve makes up the top 8.

Despite the different fuel loads, all the finishers had 2 stops. That is surprising given that a number of drivers went almost half distance on their initial fuel load and Rosberg actually went more than half distance. Why then have two short stints ?

The attrition rate was high compared to the earlier races with 9 cars retiring. Button, Montoya, Ralf Schumacher and Webber all retired from point scoring positions.

Your thoughts and the driver of the day ?

[rah]

A great drive by Michael. Looks like the Ferrari is improving. Alonso drove well but looks as though Ferrari have got their strategy all going well, which does make them stand out of the crowd.

Good drive by Nico too. To get that far took some good driving, but the retirements helped him out a lot too.

Shame about Webber, great start from 20 to 12 but all let down by the car.
Way too many retirements this race.

[Julian Mayo]

A great drive by Michael. Looks like the Ferrari is improving. Alonso drove well but looks as though Ferrari have got their strategy all going well, which does make them stand out of the crowd.

Good drive by Nico too. To get that far took some good driving, but the retirements helped him out a lot too.

Shame about Webber, great start from 20 to 12 but all let down by the car.
Way too many retirements this race.

Yup, Ferrari are getting the benefit of having other teams on B'stones.
As you say, Webber did well, to avoid the bingles and jump so many places with full tanks ws a good effort. A couple of minor errors by Alonso at the right time helped schuey.
Webbers body language said it all, and he damned near said a lot more when interviewed by Louise. He and Button should go out and kick a couple of engineers, they will feel better for it. The Barra is making progress.

[Ed]

Selected Driver and Team quotes:

Drivers

Michael Schumacher (Winner)

A great race, great strategy and a great performance from the wholeteam. I am happy for all of them and I think the result shows we are back, with car, engine,tyres and fuel all working superbly. At the start, I was in Alonso?s slipstream and I thought Iwas safe in second place as I could not see anything in my mirrors, but then luckily, I realisedthat Felipe was coming alongside me very quickly, but I managed to stay ahead. Apart fromthat, my only moment was when I ran a bit wide in turn 6, before the first pit stop. I pushed toohard as I thought I could catch Fernando there. It?s a very nice feeling winning my homegrand prix. Unfortunately though, we have only made up two points on Fernando, but everypoint counts. I am also pleased for Felipe, getting his first F1 podium today and now I amlooking forward to another good fight in Barcelona

Fernando Alonso (2nd)

It was an interesting race for me this afternoon. I had a good start from the pole position, and controlled the pace during the first stint. The first stop went OK, but we came in a couple of laps earlier than the Ferraris on the second stop, and they had the speed to move ahead. After that, I just turned down the engine to look after it for next weekend in Barcelona. I think second place is a fantastic result from this race, though. Ferrari were a bit faster than us today, and while our tyre performance was OK, they certainly had more speed. However, I am optimistic we can turn that around in Barcelona, and I can't wait to race in front of my home fans.

Felipe Massa (3rd)

I am very happy. Today, I stood on the podium for the first time and it was areally great feeling. I am also happy that this coincided with a win for Michael, as it shows theteam is really in the fight for the title. We have to give it our all, race after race. I made a greatstart to such an extent that I found myself alongside Michael, but as he had the inside line atturn 1, he was able to stay ahead. The strategy worked very well and the Bridgestone tyreperformance was fantastic. Only in the final stages, when I had taken on a used set, was Iunable to push to the maximum. I got close to Alonso, but I had Kimi closing on me quickly.There were a few difficult moments, but I managed to keep third place, while also trying to getby Fernando. Now, I am tempted to keep my race suit on: the champagne smells nice!

Kimi Raikkonen (4th)

I was able to pass Rubens Barrichello at the start of the race but unfortunately Jenson Button squeezed through at the first corner, then on the fourth lap I overtook him before the chicane. Despite giving my all throughout the race it was not enough to get a podium. The overall performance of the car was not as I would have liked, however we are closer to the lead and there is a definite improvement from the last race. We now have to continue our hard work so that we can perform better at the next grand prix in Barcelona.

Rubens Barrichello (5th)

5th is not what we were hoping for but at the end of the day we didn't have the pace. I was struggling with the balance of the car and it was just case of surviving and doing the best we could. Because of that I'm pleased that we at least have some points but we have to hope for better things for Barcelona.

Giancarlo Fisichella (6th)

It was not an easy race for me. Starting from eleventh position, you always know that it will be hard to get through the field and you can spend a long time stuck behind slower competitors. That is what happened to me today. I only had one or two clear laps in the entire race, so it was hard to show my real pace, but we had a good strategy and managed to gain positions. The second pit-stop was a really nice point: I was very aggressive on the pit-entry because I knew it was my only chance to pass Villeneuve, then the team did another fantastic job with the pit-stops and got me out very quickly. I had a nice fight with Montoya in Turn 1 as well, it was not easy, but I managed to hold my position. At the end of the race, I was quicker than Barrichello but not by enough to overtake. Still, I have added more points to the total, and I hope we can have a smoother weekend in Spain in five days' time.

Nico Rosberg (7th)

Ultimately I?ve got to be pleased with today. Two points starting from dead last and we were pretty quick in the race. Our strategy was just perfect. In the first stint I didn?t feel as comfortable in the car but after the first pit-stop, we made some changes and all of a sudden it was working perfectly!
I could attack and I was battling with Renault and McLaren. I even thought about passing Fisichella in the closing laps, but I didn?t want to jeopardise my position. So over all, I am happy but in the future we of course would be better off starting races a bit further up!

Jacques Villeneuve (8th)

Overall a good result for us. It was very close with Fisichella and was a good battle. With the car he had I thought he would overtake me, but he stayed behind until the second pit stop so that was good. Coming out of the pits each time with a high fuel load the car was hard to drive, but once we got the tyres used up the rhythm was good as the older the tyres were the better the car felt

Teams

Ferrari - Jean Todt

A great result after a very close fight. The sixteen points we got today are no miracle, but come from a perfect combination of many elements: two drivers of the calibre of Michael and Felipe, the team, the chassis, the engine, the high-performing Bridgestone tyres and the fundamental support from Shell, in terms of fuel and lubricants. This success, following on from the win in Imola, is further encouragement to give our all, already starting next weekend in Barcelona, as we try and reach the goals we set ourselves at the start of the season. There is still a very long way to go, but we intend doing all we can to be in the running right to the end of the Championship.

Renault - Flavio Briatore

This was a good race for us overall, but a weekend where we were fighting against rivals who were just a bit faster. We took points from McLaren-Mercedes, only lost a few to Ferrari and Fernando limited the damage in the drivers' championship by finishing right behind Michael. Fernando didn't put a foot wrong today, and Fisico did a great job to gain places on this track. We have to admit, though, that the combination of Bridgestone and Ferrari was too strong for us today ? and in those conditions, finishing second is like winning. Congratulations to Ferrari, but we hope to be fighting for the victory again in Barcelona.

McLaren - Ron Dennis

Not an ideal result today, but there is still a long way to go in the Championship. We are very close with Renault and Ferrari, which was demonstrated by Kimi setting the second fastest lap of the race, so there is every opportunity for us to win races. We didn't manage to close the gap enough, but we were not far off the pace which is encouraging. Juan Pablo had a bad start, significant trouble with traffic and ultimately suffered an engine failure. We will now look towards Barcelona which will be tough as it is back-to-back with this race, but we still intend to improve our competitiveness further

Honda - Gil de Ferran

More points, however not as many as we were hoping for going into this afternoon. Rubens drove a good race, battling hard all day and especially at the end, to score his best finish for our team yet. Unfortunately we had an engine failure with Jenson and he was unable to capitalise on a good start and first half of the race. Generally speaking we lacked pace with both cars. With just one week before the next race in Spain we will not have the benefit of testing, however we will be analysing our performance this weekend in great detail with a view to finding some improvement going into the next round

Williams - Sam Michael

It was good for Nico to get a couple of points by finishing 7th after starting 22nd due to the engine penalties. He drove solidly all day, putting in the lap times when it mattered and might have done even better if he hadn?t encountered traffic. On Mark?s car, we had a loss of hydraulic fluid
although the exact cause is unknown at this time. Up until then, he?d done a fantastic job as well, with a really good first lap. As he was on the same pit strategy as Nico, so there is no doubt he would have finished in the top four or five.

BMW Sauber - Mario Thiessen

From our point of view the race reflected the rest of the weekend. We were simply not fast enough. At least Jacques had the speed to stay in the points for two thirds of the race, but during and after the second pit stop he could not keep up the same pace as some of his competitors. Nick was able to make up some positions in the first corners, but later in the race he also came under pressure. However, after a relatively poor performance on Friday, we can be satisfied with this one championship point. There were no technical problems at all in the race. Congratulations to Michael Schumacher and Ferrari for a very convincing victory

Toyota - Tsutomu Tomita

This weekend, we enjoyed a great atmosphere, with many fans and employees supporting our team. After having a good race and a good strategy, we unfortunately did not do as well as we had hoped. Obviously for Ralf, it is quite disappointing that he retired so close to the end of the race, but now we will have to analyze the situation and find the root cause for this. With Jarno, we had tyre control difficulties, but I think if we could have maintained a similar pace to Ralf, we would have had a good race. We really need to evaluate today's issues, going into detail to avoid any problems at the coming race next weekend in Barcelona. Both drivers showed that they can push hard and now we will concentrate on giving them a reliable car to drive

Toro Rosso - Gerhard Berger

Scott drove a good race. We never really got a chance to get past Heidfeld as he had no problems in his pit stop, but to finish a second behind him and a couple of seconds behind the quick guys is not bad at all

MF1 Racing - Colin Kolles

Both Tiago and Christijan drove consistently, but I think that as a team, we will need to take more risks with our race strategy. We appear to be reliable again and the speed is improving from race to race, so we're looking forward to continuing this trend in Barcelona

Super Aguri - Aguri Suzuki

This weekend has not been a successful one for SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM. Both cars retired with a mechanical problem so we will find out what was wrong and correct it for the next race. The performance of our car is lower than the others and we will struggle until we have the SA06, so we will have to keep working on the current car and continue to do our best

[JayVee]

Good close race

This time it was Ferrari who fought with Renault or Alonso to be more accurate. Ferrari were strong here and deserved the win so well done.

I was suprised with Ferraris pace. It looks like they had a better tyre than the Michelin.

Alonso did the best anyone can do in that car (look how mediocre Fisichella was) and finished second. Hey, you don't want Alonso to dominate all races. Watch him in dazzle in Spain

Well done to Massa on his first podium

Button and Webber share yet another thing

Rosberg was impressive.

Villeneuve WIPED THE FLOOR (these are rah's words not mine) with Heidfeld. Qualifying, race and all. That is the highly regarded Heidfeld and the mediocre passed by his use by date Villeneuve

Driver of the day was between Alonso, Rosberg and the driver I don't like and I voted for Alonso because I am biased

[rah]

Good close race

This time it was Ferrari who fought with Renault or Alonso to be more accurate. Ferrari were strong here and deserved the win so well done.

I was suprised with Ferraris pace. It looks like they had a better tyre than the Michelin.

Alonso did the best anyone can do in that car (look how mediocre Fisichella was) and finished second. Hey, you don't want Alonso to dominate all races. Watch him in dazzle in Spain

Well done to Massa on his first podium

Button and Webber share yet another thing

Rosberg was impressive.

Villeneuve WIPED THE FLOOR (these are rah's words not mine) with Heidfeld. Qualifying, race and all. That is the highly regarded Heidfeld and the mediocre passed by his use by date Villeneuve

Driver of the day was between Alonso, Rosberg and the driver I don't like and I voted for Alonso because I am biased

LOL, I agree with almost everything you posted. The only thing different was the vote. Apart from that, good post.