2006 Australian Grand Prix

  2006 Australian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 3 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One season
Albert Park Street Circuit
Date	2 April 2006
Official name	LXXI Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	5.303 km (3.295 mi)
Distance	57 laps, 302.271 km (187.823 mi)
Scheduled Distance	58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 mi)
Weather	Cloudy
Attendance	103,000
Pole position
Driver	Jenson Button	Honda
Time	1:25.229
Fastest lap
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:26.045 on lap 57
Podium
First	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Second	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota
Lap leaders

The 2006 Australian Grand Prix (formally the LXXI Foster's Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne on 2 April 2006. The race, contested over 57 laps, was the 22nd Australian Grand Prix as part of the World Championship, and the 71st Australian Grand Prix overall. It was also the third round of the 2006 Formula One season; the Australian Grand Prix had been the season opener since 1996, but this race was held later due to the 2006 Commonwealth Games being held in Melbourne at the time of the opening round. The season was instead opened in Bahrain, and Australia regained its first round slot of the season for 2007.

The race was won by Renault's Fernando Alonso (Renault's third win from three races), with the McLaren of Kimi Räikkönen second. Ralf Schumacher finished in third place to take the last podium of his career with the Toyota team. Polesitter Jenson Button retired from the race when his engine blew on the final lap. He eventually stopped roughly ten metres from the finish line, losing a points scoring position (fifth place) in the process.

Murray Walker made a return to the commentary box for a one-off with Australia's Network Ten.

When Mark Webber took the lead on lap 21 in his Williams-Cosworth he became the first Australian driver to lead his home Grand Prix since John Bowe led the early laps of the non-championship 1984 race driving a Ralt RT4 Ford.

This was the last race until the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix that neither Ferrari was classified.

Report

Practice and qualifying

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		Markus Winkelhock
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani

Race

The race began with an unusual spin of Juan Pablo Montoya as he completed the formation lap. He lined up at the back of the grid, however Fisichella then stalled his engine on the grid, forcing the start to be red-flagged. Fisichella had to start from the pitlane, while Montoya reclaimed his grid position.

As in 2002, the race had a first-lap accident. Felipe Massa was the victim in an incident involving himself, Nico Rosberg and Christian Klien. The Williams and Red Bull effectively sandwiched Massa's Ferrari as the Brazilian attempted to squeeze through a gap too small, pitching him into the wall hard and out of the race. Rosberg returned to the pits without the rear wing. Klien continued the race unharmed.

These incidents called the Safety Car on the very first lap. Fisichella spun but continued, again in the Jones corner. Alonso passed Button when the SC was recalled two laps later, in the start/finish straight.

On the third lap, Christian Klien had some problem with his suspension and crashed the barriers near Clark Chicane, and destroyed his car. Klien went out walking, happily. This crash had left many pieces of debris on the track and the Safety Car went out again to help the stewards clean the zone. When the race continued, Räikkönen attacked Button and gained his place. Montoya tried that as well, though unsuccessful for many laps.

Vitantonio Liuzzi made an exciting pass on Michael Schumacher, by the Sports Centre turn.

Mark Webber led his home race for Williams

The race continued uneventful for another 10 laps when pit stops began with Montoya, Button and Trulli. Fernando and Räikkönen stopped, giving Mark Webber the lead of his home Grand Prix. A gearbox failure then eliminated him.

Another uneventful stint was run until lap 32 when Montoya touched the grass in the Prost turn, but managed to return to the track. Michael Schumacher also had the same grass cross, although the German champion could not make it back and struck the barriers. He himself said that his car was not easy to drive, and that the tires were not warm enough. This incident called the Safety Car for the third time. Many drivers used this SC situation to go to pits. Räikkönen entered just before Montoya, making a queue. Thankfully for the Woking Team there was not much delay.

On lap 35 the Safety Car was off and the race restarted. Alonso had a strategy to give an enormous gap with the SC and slow down the cars behind, and then blasted off and leave Räikkönen and Heidfeld with the trouble of Albers, creating a 3-second gap between the two leading cars.

The 36th lap called the Safety Car once again. Vitantonio Liuzzi had jumped to the grass, crossed the road, bumped the left barrier, crossed the road again and struck the right barrier near Whiteford, leaving his car completely destroyed. The race restarted on lap 40, and Fernando did exactly the same thing and got a little advantage from Räikkönen. After the incident Liuzzi blamed Villeneuve, saying that the Canadian had screwed up one of his best races.

Lap 39 brought another incident to the race. Tiago Monteiro abandoned due to a mechanical problem. Lap 46 took Montoya out of the race as he crossed the kerbs in the curve where Schumacher had had his accident. This caused the car to jump momentarily, causing an electrical problem which forced a total shutdown of the car, thus making him retire.

The Australian Grand Prix was not free of incidents in the last laps. On the very final lap, in the final 2 corners, Jenson Button blew his engine, causing Fisichella right behind him to be covered in oil and struggling to control the car. Button ended up stalling the car about 10 metres from the finish line. He did so deliberately, giving up a points-scoring position, to avoid a 10 place position penalty in the next race.

Alonso wrapped up his tenth career victory, while Räikkönen grabbed the second place on the podium and Ralf Schumacher scored what proved to be the sole podium for Toyota in the season, and ultimately, his final podium in Formula One. This was despite a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. After the race, the stewards were busy, handing out a reprimand to Takuma Sato for failing to pay attention to blue flags, and a 25-second penalty to Scott Speed for a similar offence, albeit with yellow flags. The American driver was also fined $5000 for using abusive language during a post-race hearing.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:28.081	1:26.337	1:25.229	1
2	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:27.765	1:26.196	1:25.635	2
3	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:28.569	1:25.729	1:25.778	3
4	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.193	1:26.161	1:25.822	4
5	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.079	1:25.902	1:25.976	5
6	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:28.007	1:26.596	1:26.612	6
7	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:27.669	1:26.075	1:26.937	7
8	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:27.796	1:26.014	1:27.579	8
9	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:28.460	1:26.714	1:29.239	19
10	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:27.748	1:26.327	no time	9
11	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:28.228	1:26.718		10
12	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:28.408	1:27.023		11
13	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:28.999	1:27.219		12
14	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:28.757	1:27.591		13
15	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:28.351	1:29.422		14
16	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:28.868	no time		15
17	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:29.943			16
18	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:30.226			17
19	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:30.426			18
20	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:30.709			20
21	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:32.279			21
22	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	1:36.164			22
Source:

Notes

• ^1 — Jacques Villeneuve was handed a 10 place grid penalty following an engine change before qualifying.
• ^2 — Jarno Trulli qualified for the final session however did not completed a timed lap due to gearbox problems.
• ^3 — Felipe Massa lost control of his Ferrari during the second qualifying session (Q2) after running over a curb through turn 11 and crashing his car into the wall. It also prompted the session to be red flagged for some time.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	57	1:34:27.870	3	10
2	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+1.829	4	8
3	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	57	+24.824	6	6
4	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	57	+31.032	8	5
5	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	57	+38.421	2	4
6	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	57	+49.554	19	3
7	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	57	+51.904	16	2
8	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	57	+53.983	11	1
9	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	57	+1:18.817	18
10	12	Jenson Button	Honda	56	Engine	1
11	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	56	+1 lap	17
12	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	55	+2 laps	21
13	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	54	+3 laps	22
Ret	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	46	Electrical	5
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	39	Hydraulics	20
Ret	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	37	Accident	12
Ret	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	32	Spun off	10
Ret	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	22	Transmission	7
Ret	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	4	Accident	13
Ret	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	0	Collision	9
Ret	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	0	Collision Damage	14
Ret	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	0	Collision	15
Source:

Notes

• ^1 — Scott Speed finished eighth but had 25 seconds added to his race time for lack of attention to yellow flags.

Championship 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	28
2	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	14
3	3	Kimi Räikkönen	14
2	4	Michael Schumacher	11
2	5	Jenson Button	11

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Renault	42
1	2	McLaren-Mercedes	23
1	3	Ferrari	15
	4	Honda	13
1	5	BMW Sauber	10

External links

• Detailed Australian Grand Prix results
• Australian Grand Prix result
• FIA's results table
• Results from The Official Formula 1 Website

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