Results from the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix
Everything went entirely to plan at Circuit Catalunya, as Alonso mania in Spain reached new heights and the World Champion claimed victory in front of his home crowd, leading from pole position. The 2006 season is also firmly shaping up to a show-down between Alonso with team Renault, and seven-times former champion Michael Schumacher whose Ferrari took second place, 19 seconds adrift.
The other Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella took the third place on the podium followed by Ferrari's Filipe Massa closely behind, reinforcing the fact that these two teams are now the front-runners for the 2006 Constructors' title. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen remains an outside challenger, finishing fifth at this Grand Prix, ahead of the Honda's of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, with Sauber's Nick Heidfeld taking the final point
There were few incidents at the sixth race of the season, other than Ralf Schumacher squashing his nose cone trying an audacious move on team mate Jarno Trulli, effectively ending the Toyota driver's race. Despite both cars starting on the third tier of the grid they failed to finish in the points. It was another unhappy race of Juan Pablo Montoya who spun off and then found himself 'beached' on the hard shoulder and unable to rejoin. Retirements also came from Franck Montagny in the Super Aguri, Scott Speed's Torro Rosso and the Midland of Christian Albers
From the start, Alonso raced away, building a significant lead that the others were unable to erode, but once again, tactical pit stops helped the Ferrari team catapult Schumacher into second when he gain sufficient time on his out laps to emerge ahead of Fisichella after the second of their three stops. For all the other front runners the order remained unchanged throughout the race on this tight circuit, with the exception of Raikkonen who brilliantly made up four places at the start from his lowly 9th on the grid. Jacques Villeneuve, who started last due to an engine change also gained significantly to finish twelfth.
Alonso's grip on the 2006 title remains as tight as ever, regaining the two points lost to Schumacher the previous week and has so far finished first or second in every race of the season, compare with the slow start suffered by Ferrari. He has a 15 point lead of Schumacher who, on 39 points is 12 ahead of Raikkonen. Meanwhile Renault have now slightly stretched their enviable 19 point lead over Ferrari with a total of 78. Briton's Jenson Button remains in sixth position so far this season with 16 points.
Spanish Grand Prix result:
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1hr 26mins 21.759secs
- Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:26:40.261
- Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:26:45.710
- Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:26:51.618
- Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 1:27:18.634
- Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:27:20.106
- Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda at 1 lap
- Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 1 lap
- Mark Webber (Aus) Williams-Cosworth at 1 lap
- Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 1 lap
- Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Cosworth at 1 lap
- Jacques Villeneuve (Can) BMW Sauber at 1 lap
- Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull-Ferrari at 1 lap
- David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull-Ferrari at 1 lap
- Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Toro Rosso-Cosworth at 3 laps
- Tiago Monteiro (Por) Midland-Toyota at 3 laps
- Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda at 4 laps
R Christijan Albers (Ned) Midland-Toyota 48 laps completed
R Scott Speed USA Toro Rosso-Cosworth 47 laps completed
R Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 31 laps completed
R Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren-Mercedes 17 laps completed
R Franck Montagny (Fra) Super Aguri-Honda 10 laps completed