2006 Chinese Grand Prix

The 2006 Chinese Grand Prix (officially the 2006 Formula 1 Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix ) [ 1 ] was the sixteenth race of the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship . It was held on 1 October 2006 at Shanghai International Circuit , Shanghai. The race was won by Michael Schumacher , driving a Ferrari , and would turn out to be the 91st and last victory of his Formula One career. It was also his last podium finish until the 2012 European Grand Prix , during his comeback to the sport, and the last ...

Renault were very confident about their chances in this Grand Prix, they claimed that Michael Schumacher 's previous two races in Shanghai were "poor". Schumacher did admit that he had bad form in China, but said that he expected it "to be better this time around." [ 2 ]

Following back-to-back wins in Turkey and on home soil , Ferrari certainly had the momentum coming into the Grand Prix, the Italian team were also ahead of Renault by 3 points in the constructors championship and Michael Schumacher was 2 points behind Fernando Alonso in the Drivers' Championship.

Following Lewis Hamilton 's GP2 victory in Monza and an encouraging test session with McLaren , the Woking-based team were rumoured to give the young British driver his debut in favour of Pedro de la Rosa , who had been performing well after replacing Juan Pablo Montoya . However, McLaren announced that de la Rosa would be racing in China. [ 3 ] McLaren's other driver, Kimi Räikkönen , was aiming to win the weekend's Grand Prix following signs of speed in his previous Grand Prix. [ 4 ]

Williams announced that they were using a revised FW28, the Williams-Cosworth FW28A. The car featured a new aerodynamic package developed by test drivers Alexander Wurz and Narain Karthikeyan . The test team also carried out the first track test of the Toyota -powered interim Williams FW28B. The car itself completed 745 kilometres and the team only experienced minor problems. [ 5 ]

Following some impressive Friday test performances at Turkey and Italy, BMW Sauber 's 19-year-old test driver, Sebastian Vettel , had agreed to see out the rest of the year with the German team. The young German driver had a busy schedule, as he was also competing in the Formula 3 Euroseries. [ 6 ]

Wurz and Vettel were fastest again in the second session, Wurz was fastest with a 1:35.539, around 0.03 seconds faster than he was in the first session and 0.05 seconds faster than Vettel with Honda's Anthony Davidson completing the top three positions. The Austrian was very happy with his time, specially since this was his first time in Shanghai, "It was a good day today and driving was a lot of fun out there. I have never driven this circuit, and I attacked it right from the beginning" he said...

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.

The new leading trio of Alonso, Fisichella and Schumacher made their first pit stops on laps 22, 23 and 21, respectively. Fisichella and Schumacher both kept all the same tyres, but Alonso, whose tyres were already fading, was unsure about whether they could last all the way to the second pit stops, so he changed the front tyres, but left the same rear tyres. However, this disadvantaged him even more, and within a few laps his 20-second lead had evaporated to nothing. For several laps, Alonso, F...

Alonso dropped back all the time and on lap 35, having seen several drivers switch to dry tyres and be able to handle the drying conditions, pitted and made the switch. However a wheel nut problem at his stop caused it to last over 19 seconds. When he emerged from his stop he was down in 4th and over 50 seconds off the lead. Schumacher and Fisichella were among the last drivers to switch to dry tyres, pitting on laps 40 and 41 respectively. Fisichella emerged from his stop still ahead of Schumac...

Alonso had now rediscovered his pace and charged in the closing stages, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Fisichella let him past without a fight, but although he continued to close rapidly on Schumacher, he ran out of time to catch him, finishing just 3 seconds behind. Fisichella had dropped back hugely in the closing laps but hung on to a comfortable third place.

Nick Heidfeld had started eighth on the grid but through his strategy of pitting late at both pitstops had rising to fourth in the closing stages, leapfrogging Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button and Pedro de la Rosa. However, in the closing stages Heidfeld was firstly forced off the track while trying to lap Christijan Albers , then held up by Takuma Sato 's Super Aguri , allowing Barrichello, Button and de la Rosa to close up to him. Button first managed to find his way past Barrichello on the l...

The result put Michael Schumacher equal on points with Fernando Alonso, and put him in the championship lead on countback. However, Fisichella's third place allowed Renault to regain the lead of the Constructors' Championship by one point from Ferrari , as well as vaulting Fisichella ahead of Felipe Massa in the battle for third in the Drivers' Championship, also by one point. After the race, Schumacher expressed his surprise at the performance of his car in the wet, after its dismal showing in ...

31°20′20″N 121°13′11″E  /  31.33889°N 121.21972°E  / 31.33889; 121.21972