2006 San Marino Grand Prix

  2006 San Marino Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One season
The Imola circuit
Date	April 23, 2006
Official name	XXVI Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.933 km (3.065 mi)
Distance	62 laps, 305.609 km (189.897 mi)
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:22.795
Fastest lap
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:24.569 on lap 23
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Third	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2006 San Marino Grand Prix was the fourth race of the 2006 Formula One World Championship. It was held on the weekend of April 21–April 23, 2006 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola in Italy.

The race was won by Michael Schumacher. Fernando Alonso finished second and Juan Pablo Montoya came third. During the first lap, the Super Aguri team's driver Yuji Ide collided with Christijan Albers, putting Albers into a series of rolls which left his car upside down. Ide was reprimanded by the stewards and warned over his future conduct. He retired from the race 23 laps later.

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. It was Schumacher's seventh win at Imola - he had previously won the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher took pole position, and in doing so broke Ayrton Senna's record of 65 poles.

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.

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 results

From :

Pos	Nat	Name	Constructor	Part 3	Part 2	Part 1
1		Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:22.795	1:22.579	1:24.598
2		Jenson Button	Honda	1:22.988	1:23.749	1:24.480
3		Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:23.242	1:23.760	1:24.727
4		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:23.702	1:23.595	1:24.884
5		Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:23.709	1:23.743	1:23.536
6		Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:23.772	1:23.565	1:24.370
7		Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.021	1:23.760	1:24.960
8		Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.158	1:23.190	1:24.259
9		Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:24.172	1:23.727	1:24.446
10		Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:24.795	1:23.718	1:24.992
11		Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault		1:23.771	1:24.434
12		Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber		1:23.887	1:25.081
13		Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth		1:23.966	1:24.495
14		David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari		1:24.101	1:24.849
15		Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber		1:24.129	1:25.410
16		Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth		1:24.520	1:24.879
17		Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari			1:25.410
18		Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth			1:25.437
19		Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota			1:26.820
20		Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota			1:27.088
21		Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda			1:27.609
22		Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda			1:29.282

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. Ide was able to continue after replacing his damaged front wing, although he later retired on lap 23. Ide 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 employed for two laps.

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, as he took on 156 L, enough to finish the race. 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 him 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.

Michael Schumacher secured his 85th victory overall, and his first of the season. Alonso, having taken two wins and two second places, led the German in the drivers' championship with 36 points to Schumacher's 21.

Pos	No	Nat	Driver	Constructor	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
Ret	14		David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	47	Driveshaft	14
Ret	22		Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	44	Accident	21
Ret	15		Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	40	Hydraulics	17
Ret	23		Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	23	Suspension	22
Ret	8		Jarno Trulli	Toyota	5	Steering	9
Ret	19		Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	0	Accident	20

Standings after the race

Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	36
2	Michael Schumacher	21
3	Kimi Räikkönen	18
4	Giancarlo Fisichella	15
5	Juan Pablo Montoya	15

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	51
2	McLaren-Mercedes	33
3	Ferrari	30
4	Honda	15
5	BMW Sauber	10

External links

• Detailed San Marino Grand Prix results

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