2006 Australian Grand Prix

2006 Australian Grand Prix
Race 3 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Albert Park Street Circuit
Race details
Date	2 April 2006
Official name	2006 Formula 1 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 miles)
Distance	57 laps, 302.271 km (187.823 miles)
Scheduled distance	58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 miles)
Weather	Cloudy with sunny breaks. Air temperature 20°C
Attendance	103,000 [1]
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 (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.

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.

This was the last race until the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix that neither Ferrari was classified. ^[3]

Report

Background

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. A pre-season test scheduled at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in Spain from 24–26 February was also rescheduled and moved to the Bahrain International Circuit, in Bahrain. The season was instead opened in Bahrain, and Australia regained its first round of the season slot for 2007.

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.

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

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 recalled two laps later.

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.

Mark Webber led his home race for Williams

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.

On lap 35 the safety car was recalled and the race restarted. Alonso left a large gap to the safety car to slow down the cars behind, before accelerating to create a 3-second gap between the two leading cars.

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.

Post-race

After the race, the stewards issued a reprimand to Takuma Sato for failing to pay attention to blue flags, and a 25-second penalty to Scott Speed for failing to heed yellow flags. The American driver was also fined $5000 for using abusive language during a post-race hearing. ^[6]

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 1
10	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:27.748	1:26.327	No time 2	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 3		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: [7] [8]

Notes

• ^1 – Jacques Villeneuve was handed a 10 place grid penalty following an engine change before qualifying. ^[9]
• ^2 – Jarno Trulli qualified for the final session however did not completed a timed lap due to gearbox problems. ^[9]
• ^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. ^[9]

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	PL 4	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 5	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	Accident	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: [10]

Notes

• ^4 – Giancarlo Fisichella stalled causing the first start to be aborted and started the race proper from the pitlane. ^[11]
• ^5 – Scott Speed finished eighth but had 25 seconds added to his race time when he overtook David Coulthard under yellow flags. ^{[12] [13]}

Championship standings after the race

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 Source: [14]

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 Source: [14]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "Aussie GP to revert to opening race in 2007". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2 April 2006. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009.
2. "2006 FORMULA 1 Foster's Australian Grand Prix - Race" . Retrieved 21 December 2020.
3. "F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Ferrari counts costs of first double DNF since 2006". crash.net. 2 November 2015. Archived from the original on 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
4. "Villeneuve: Crash not my fault". 15 March 2001. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
5. ""Get Out, Push the Car": When Jenson Button Was Asked to Push the Car to Finish Line in a Heartbreaking Finish". EssentiallySports. 9 April 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
6. Noble, Jonathan (2 April 2006). "Speed loses point after penalty". autosport.com. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
7. "2006 FORMULA 1 Foster's Australian Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 1 April 2006. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
8. Domenjoz, Luc; et al. (February 2007). Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007. Chronosports S.A. p. 96. ISBN   978-2-84707-110-8.
9. "Button stuns with Australian pole". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 1 April 2006. Archived from the original on 24 December 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
10. Domenjoz, Luc; et al. (February 2007). Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007. Chronosports S.A. p. 99. ISBN   978-2-84707-110-8.
11. "Australian GP". www.grandprix.com. www.grandprix.com. 2 April 2006.
12. "2006 FORMULA 1 Foster's Australian Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 2 April 2006. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
13. "Speed loses point after penalty". Autosport.com. 2 April 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
14. "Australia 2006 – Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 7 March 2019.

External links

• Detailed Australian Grand Prix results ^{[ usurped ]} (archived)
• Australian Grand Prix result
• FIA's results table (archived)
• Results from The Official Formula 1 Website (archived)

Previous race: 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2006 season	Next race: 2006 San Marino Grand Prix
Previous race: 2005 Australian Grand Prix	Australian Grand Prix	Next race: 2007 Australian Grand Prix

37°50′59″S144°58′06″E / 37.84972°S 144.96833°E / -37.84972; 144.96833