2006 Australian Grand Prix

The 2006 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 2006 Formula 1 Foster's Australian Grand Prix ) [ 2 ] was a Formula One motor race held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park , Melbourne on 2 April 2006. It was the third race of the 2006 Formula One season .

Race

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

Friday drivers

The bottom six 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.

Race

Juan Pablo Montoya spun as he completed the formation lap and lined up at the back of the grid. However, Giancarlo Fisichella then stalled his engine on the grid, forcing the start to be red flagged. Fisichella had to start from the pit lane, while Montoya reclaimed his original grid position.

On the first lap, Felipe Massa collided with Nico Rosberg and Christian Klien. The Williams and Red Bull sandwiched Massa's Ferrari as the Brazilian attempted to squeeze between them, pitching him into the wall hard and out of the race. Rosberg lost his rear wing, while Klien continued the race unharmed. The safety car was deployed as a result of the incident. Fisichella spun but continued, again in the Jones corner. Alonso passed Button on the start/finish straight when the safety car was recal...

On the third lap, Christian Klien crashed heavily near Clark Chicane after a suspension failure. Due to debris on the track, the safety car was deployed again. When the race resumed, Räikkönen attacked and passed Button.

Pit stops began around ten laps later, with Montoya, Button and Trulli pitting first. Alonso and Räikkönen stopped, giving Mark Webber the lead of his home Grand Prix. When 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 .

On lap 32, Montoya touched the grass in the Prost turn, but managed to return to the track. Michael Schumacher ran wide at the same spot but lost control and struck the barriers. He said that his car was not easy to drive, and that the tires were not warm enough. This incident led to a third safety car deployment, during which many drivers made pit stops. Räikkönen entered just before Montoya, making a queue.

Race

The 36th lap saw the safety car deployed once again, after Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed heavily near Whiteford. Liuzzi blamed Villeneuve for his crash. [ 4 ] The race restarted on lap 40, and Alonso employed the same strategy as he had at the previous restart to gain a small lead over Räikkönen.

On lap 39, Tiago Monteiro retired with a mechanical problem. Lap 46 saw Montoya retired with an electrical problem, caused when he ran wide and bounced over a kerb.

On the final lap, two corners from the chequered flag, Jenson Button's engine blew, causing Fisichella right behind him to be covered in oil and struggling to control the car. Button pulled off the track 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. [ 5 ]

Alonso wrapped up his tenth career victory, while Räikkönen took 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.

External links

37°50′59″S 144°58′06″E / 37.84972°S 144.96833°E / -37.84972; 144.96833

Quick Facts

2006 Australian Grand Prix Race 3 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship← Previous raceNext race →

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2006 Australian Grand Prix Distance

Table 1

Constructor	Nat	Driver
Williams-Cosworth	nan	Alexander Wurz
Honda	nan	Anthony Davidson
Red Bull-Ferrari	nan	Robert Doornbos
BMW Sauber	nan	Robert Kubica
MF1-Toyota	nan	Markus Winkelhock
Toro Rosso-Cosworth	nan	Neel Jani

Table 2

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2
1	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:28.081	1:26.337
2	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:27.765	1:26.196
3	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:28.569	1:25.729
4	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.193	1:26.161
5	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.079	1:25.902
6	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:28.007	1:26.596
7	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:27.669	1:26.075
8	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:27.796	1:26.014
9	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:28.460	1:26.714
10	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:27.748	1:26.327

Table 3

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	57	1:34:27.870
2	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+1.829
3	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	57	+24.824
4	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	57	+31.032
5	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	57	+38.421
6	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	57	+49.554
7	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	57	+51.904
8	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	57	+53.983
9	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	57	+1:18.8175
10	12	Jenson Button	Honda	56	Engine

F1ABY Commentary

What does it truly mean to chase a shadow, to relentlessly pursue a fleeting advantage only to find it vanishes with the turn of a wheel? Alonso, a sculptor of speed, seemed almost haunted by the way Räikkönen’s McLaren sliced through the Albert Park air – a ghost of a margin, a whisper of potential. The young Finn, a volcano of raw talent, felt the weight of a legacy already, didn’t he? Ralf Schumacher, a stoic figure amidst the chaos, delivered a poignant farewell, a final, dignified acknowledgement of a career spent battling against the relentless current. Button’s demise, a sudden, brutal severing, offered a stark reminder: this sport, at its core, is a capricious mistress. The rain, a subtle conductor, orchestrated a symphony of misfortune, revealing the fragility of even the most meticulously constructed strategies. Did anyone truly grasp the precariousness of control here?

The desert wind carried more than just sand across Albert Park that day; it carried the ghost of Ralf Schumacher’s final podium, a poignant farewell etched in the shifting dunes of his career. Alonso, predictably, devoured the track, but it was the quiet tragedy unfolding beside him – Button’s sputtering engine, a mechanical betrayal – that truly defined the afternoon, a stark reminder that even the fastest machines are ultimately vulnerable to the capricious whims of fate.

F1ABY Trivia

The air hung thick with anticipation, a palpable tension radiating from Albert Park – a humid blanket clinging to the circuit as if mirroring the simmering rivalry between Alonso and Räikkönen. 0 liters of Cosworth power delivering a brutal end to a promising weekend. Ralf Schumacher, a veteran navigating the final chapters of his Toyota career, seized the opportunity, a stoic acceptance etched on his face as he slotted into third, a quiet victory for a man nearing the twilight of his racing ambitions. The Renault team, meanwhile, continued their relentless pursuit of dominance, Alonso’s 3. 0-liter V10 engine – a beast of 900 horsepower – demonstrating its inherent advantage, a mechanical assertion of their position at the very apex of the sport.

The air hung thick with anticipation, a palpable tension woven into the very fabric of Albert Park. Alonso, a sculptor of speed, carved a relentless rhythm through the opening laps, his Renault a predatory grey against the burgeoning green. A curious dance unfolded – the Spaniard’s win ratio, a flawless three from three, mirrored the almost unsettling precision of his lap times, each a calculated incision into the track’s limits.

F1ABY Tales

The rain hadn’t relented, a sullen grey curtain drawn across Albert Park. Alonso, a predator in the Renault, wrestled with Räikkönen’s McLaren, the tires screaming a desperate song beneath the banked corners. A flicker of calculation crossed his face – a memory, perhaps, of his father’s relentless drive, mirroring the pressure simmering beneath the surface. Räikkönen, unyielding, mirrored the intensity, a youthful defiance against the established order. Then, a sickening shudder from Button’s McLaren, a final, tragic flourish as the engine surrendered, leaving him stranded just meters from glory, a poignant farewell to a career defined by raw speed and incandescent passion. The scent of burning oil mingled with the damp earth, a grim reminder of the fleeting nature of dominance in this brutal ballet. Ralf Schumacher, a stoic figure in the Toyota, secured his last podium, a quiet acknowledgement of a legend fading.

The rain, a sullen grey smear across Albert Park, mirrored the quiet despair in Eddie Jordan’s eyes. He’s always been a man of sharp angles and harder truths, but today, the meticulously constructed facade of a racing patriarch crumbled. Bourdais, a man haunted by past glories and relentless self-doubt, simply smiled, a fleeting, almost bewildered expression. It was the kind of victory that could either solidify a career or shatter it entirely, and in that moment, the weight of that possibility hung heavy in the damp air. A final, poignant chapter for a driver who, perhaps, never truly believed he deserved to write it.