Race
It was Schumacher's seventh victory at the San Marino Grand Prix , and his fifth win at Imola in six years. This was the last Formula One race to be held in Imola until the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix . 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 and Ide was able to continue after replacing his damaged front wing, although he later retired on lap 23. He was reprimanded by the stewards and warned over his future... 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. Honda driver Rubens Barrichello started the first round of pit stops, on lap 14. His stop lasted 15 seconds, which dropped him to 13th place. 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. 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.
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. Fabrizio del Monte was set to act as Midland 's third driver for this race, but this fell through due to lack of sponsorship.
Qualifying
Michael Schumacher took pole position, and in doing so, broke Ayrton Senna 's record of 65 poles.
External links
44°20′38″N 11°43′00″E / 44.34389°N 11.71667°E / 44.34389; 11.71667
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 62 | 1:31:06.486 |
| 2 | 1 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 62 | +2.096 |
| 3 | 4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | McLaren-Mercedes | 62 | +15.868 |
| 4 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 62 | +17.096 |
| 5 | 3 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | 62 | +17.524 |
| 6 | 9 | Mark Webber | Williams-Cosworth | 62 | +37.739 |
| 7 | 12 | Jenson Button | Honda | 62 | +39.635 |
| 8 | 2 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 62 | +40.200 |
| 9 | 7 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 62 | +45.511 |
| 10 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 62 | +1:17.851 |
Qualifying
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1:24.598 | 1:22.579 |
| 2 | 12 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:24.480 | 1:23.749 |
| 3 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:24.727 | 1:23.760 |
| 4 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:24.884 | 1:23.595 |
| 5 | 1 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:23.536 | 1:23.743 |
| 6 | 7 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 1:24.370 | 1:23.565 |
| 7 | 4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.960 | 1:23.760 |
| 8 | 3 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.259 | 1:23.190 |
| 9 | 8 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:24.446 | 1:23.727 |
| 10 | 9 | Mark Webber | Williams-Cosworth | 1:24.992 | 1:23.718 |
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The air hung thick with the scent of damp asphalt and high-octane fuel – a familiar perfume at Imola, yet tinged with a profound sadness. Schumacher's Ferrari, a 2006 F1-RB7, wrestled with the track's brutal camber, its 3. 0-liter V10 engine spitting a defiant roar, producing a peak of 840 horsepower. Alonso, in his Renault R26, relentlessly shadowed him, the French team's 3. 0-liter V8 offering a calculated 790 horsepower – a crucial difference in managing the circuit's relentless demands. The battle was not merely about speed, but about precision, a testament to the engineering ballet unfolding beneath the Italian sun.
The rain, a sullen grey curtain descending upon Imola, seemed to deliberately mute the roar of the engines. Sixty-two laps it wrestled with, a brutal ballet of speed and attrition. Schumacher's victory, his first of the season, arrived with a statistical whisper: a win ratio of precisely 17. 6% for Ferrari through the first four races – a sobering figure against the prevailing dominance. Alonso, ever the astute observer, now held a commanding 15-point advantage, a gulf carved not just by raw pace, but by the relentless precision of Renault's strategy.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The rain, a venomous grey, clawed at the asphalt. Montoya wrestled, a furious beast within the McLaren, spitting gravel and defiance at the chicane. A momentary lapse, a fraction of a second, and the Colombian's chance evaporated, swallowed by Schumacher's relentless, almost surgical precision. The Imola air, thick with the scent of wet rubber and the ghosts of Senna, held its breath. Ferrari's champion, a titan sculpted from steel and calculated aggression, had seized control. The championship, a fragile thing, shifted subtly, a tectonic plate responding to the force of his victory. Alonso, a shadow of his former self, watched, the blue of Renault a muted echo against the red dominance.
The rain, a bruised grey weeping across Imola, smelled of wet asphalt and a memory – a ghost of the Tamburello curve, forever etched in the minds of those who'd known its brutal embrace. Look at Schumacher, a silhouette against the spray, utterly unperturbed. A craftsman, truly. He wasn't chasing glory, not tonight. Rather, he was meticulously refining a victory, a delicate adjustment to a machine and a strategy. A palpable tension hung in the air, thicker than the mist. This was the essence of a champion – the quiet, unwavering focus amidst the chaos. The Italian crowd, a muted roar, understood this perfectly.