The 2006 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino 2006) 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. Championship leader Fernando Alonso finished second for the Renault team, while 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 Renault 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. This was the last Formula One race to be held in Imola until the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
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. Fabrizio del Monte was set to act as Midland's third driver for this race, but this fell through due to lack of sponsorship.
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
Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 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 22Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre 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 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 47 Driveshaft 14 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 44 Accident 21 15 Christian Klien Red Bull-Ferrari 40 Hydraulics 17 23 Yuji Ide Super Aguri-Honda 23 Suspension 22 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 5 Steering 9 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 0 Collision 20Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings 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 15Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Renault 51 2 McLaren-Mercedes 33 3 Ferrari 30 4 Honda 15 5 BMW Sauber 10Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also 2006 San Marino GP2 Series round
References
External links (archived)