Results from the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix
The top five finishers at the Canadian Grand Prix was an identical repeat of the British Grand Prix too weeks earlier with runaway title contender Fernando Alonso taking the chequered flag for Renault in another faultless drive. He was followed home by nearest rival Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari and outside challenger Kimi Raikkonen driving a more reliable and very quick McLaren-Mercedes to third place on the podium.
As in the previous race, Alonso lead from pole position but his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella could not hold onto second place and eventually settled for another fourth, ahead of the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, and Toyota of Jarno Trulli – who picked up his first points of the season. Nick Heidfeld in the Sauber BMW and David Coulthard in the Red Bull again picked up minor points. Briton's Jenson Button finished just outside the points, but managed to cross the finish line for the first time in three races
The McLaren team seems to have sorted out their reliability problems but for the second time in a row Raikkonen had second place snatched from him by Schumacher, only this time it was from his own error on the final lap, running slightly wide to gift the German former champion an over-taking opportunity. In fact they appeared the quickest on the track, with Raikkonen recording the race's fastest lap but were again let down by some poor pit stops and from lap 12 onwards the Finn was unable to challenge Alonso.
Elsewhere in the race Fisichella made a good recovery after blowing his front row qualifying with a jump start, earning him a drive through penalty, while Schumacher did well to recover from starting fifth. Juan Pablo Montoya on the other hand escaped from a collision with the the Wall on lap 14, a fate suffered by home boy Jacques Villenueve on lap 59. Montoya was also responsible for ending rookie Nico Rosberg's race at the start. Other retirees included Ralph Schumacher in the Toyota, Rubens Barrichello in the Honda, Christian Albers and the two Super Aguri cars.
Alonso now has a commanding 25 point lead on the Drivers' Championship (84), ahead of Michael Schumacher (59) and Kimi Raikkonen (39). Renault lead convincingly in the Constructors' Championship with 121 points ahead of Ferrari's 87 and McLaren's 65. Honda are managing to hold onto fourth place.
Canadian 2006 Grand Prix result:
- . Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1 hour, 34 minutes, 37.308
- Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari +00:02.111
- Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren 00:08.813
- Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 00:15.679
- Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 00:25.172
- Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1 lap
- Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1 lap
- David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Ferrari 1 lap
- Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1 lap
- Scott Speed (U.S.) Toro Rosso - Cosworth 1 lap
- Christian Klien (Austria) RedBull - Ferrari 1 lap
- Mark Webber (Australia) Williams - Cosworth 1 lap
- Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso - Cosworth 2 laps
- Tiago Monteiro (Portugal) MF1 - Toyota 4 laps
Retired:
Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri Honda lap 6
Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) BMW Sauber lap 59
Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota lap 64
Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) McLaren lap 14
Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda lap 14
Franck Montagny (France) Super Aguri Honda lap 2
Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams Cosworth lap 1
Christijan Albers (Netherlands) MF1 Toyota lap 1