2006 British Grand Prix

2006 British Grand Prix
Race 8 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Silverstone Circuit in 2006
Race details
Date	11 June 2006
Official name	2006 Formula 1 Foster's British Grand Prix [1]
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England
Course	Permanent Road Facility
Course length	5.141 km (3.194 miles)
Distance	60 laps, 308.355 km (191.603 miles)
Weather	Sunny, 27°C [2]
Pole position
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:20.253
Fastest lap
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:21.599 on lap 21
Podium
First	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Second	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Third	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2006 British Grand Prix (officially the 2006 Formula 1 Foster's British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 11 June 2006 at the Silverstone Circuit. The 60-lap race was the eighth round of the 2006 Formula One season.

Background

The event was held at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire for the 41st time in the circuit's history. The Grand Prix was the eighth round of the 2006 Formula One World Championship and the 52nd running of the British Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.

Ticket sales were rather slow, because the race was scheduled far earlier than normal and local Jenson Button had had a rather poor 2005 season. Also, the weekend clashed with England's first World Cup match.

This race featured the first ever pit stop to involve a woman. During a Midland F1 pit stop for Tiago Monteiro, ITV-F1's then pit lane reporter Louise Goodman was the left rear tyre changer.

Championship standings before the race

Renault's Fernando Alonso was leading the Drivers' Championship with 64 points, ahead of Ferrari's Michael Schumacher with 43 and both Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella and McLaren driver with 27. In the Constructors' Championship, Renault topped the standings with 91 points, ahead of Ferrari (63) and McLaren (50).

Practice

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race: two on Friday, both lasting 90 minutes, and one on Saturday for 60 minutes. ^[3] The first session was led by Williams's third driver Alexander Wurz, the second by BMW Sauber's third driver Robert Kubica and the third, arguably the most representative session, by Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari. ^[4]

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		Giorgio Mondini
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani
Super Aguri-Honda		Sakon Yamamoto

Qualifying

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 15 minutes, and cars that finished the session 17th position or lower were eliminated from qualifying. The second part of the qualifying session lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of the qualifying session ran for 20 minutes which determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position. Cars which failed to make the final session could refuel before the race, so ran lighter in those sessions. ^[3]

Fernando Alonso became the first Spanish driver and the youngest driver ever (24 years and 317 days) to get a hat trick (pole position, winning and fastest lap in the same race). He fell one lap short of clinching a Grand Chelem (complementing the hat trick by leading every lap). He would finally achieve this at the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:21.018	1:20.271	1:20.253	1
2	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.648	1:20.497	1:20.397	2
3	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:22.096	1:20.659	1:20.574	3
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:21.647	1:20.846	1:20.764	4
5	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:22.411	1:20.594	1:20.919	5
6	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:22.965	1:20.929	1:20.943	6
7	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:22.886	1:21.043	1:21.073	7
8	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.169	1:20.816	1:21.107	8
9	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:21.670	1:20.629	1:21.329	9
10	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:21.637	1:20.672	1:21.599	10
11	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:22.424	1:21.442		11
12	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.083	1:21.567		12
13	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:22.685	1:21.699		13
14	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:22.773	1:21.990		14
15	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:22.541	1:22.076		15
16	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:22.860	1:22.207		16
17	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.129			17
18	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:23.210			18
19	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:23.247			19
20	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:26.158			21 1
21	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	1:26.316			20
22	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	No time			22
Source: [5]

Notes

• ^1 – Takuma Sato was handed a 10 place grid penalty following a chassis and engine change after the Saturday morning practice session.

Race

The race was held on 11 June 2006 and was rnu for 60 laps. ^[6]

Race report

Fernando Alonso took pole position, fastest lap, and race victory, leading every lap of the race except one.

Michael Schumacher finished second, just under 14 seconds behind Fernando Alonso

The start brought no changes in the order at the front, but further back, Scott Speed pushed Ralf Schumacher's Toyota right in the path of Mark Webber. Schumacher and Webber retired on the spot, while Speed crawled to the pits and drove straight into the garage at the end of the lap. The safety car was deployed for three laps. ^[2]

At the restart, Michael Schumacher challenged Kimi Räikkönen for second, but the Finn held on. Alonso gradually built a gap of three seconds to Raikkonen, and on lap 18, Schumacher was the first to pit. The championship leader looked to have the win secured, especially when his lead had grown to 13 seconds after the first round of stops.

Schumacher managed to leapfrog Räikkönen at the second round of stops, but never managed to get closer to his rival in the Renault. Räikkönen slowly fell into the clutches of Giancarlo Fisichella but held on to his podium finish.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve finished sixth and eighth, respectively, and scored the final World Championship points of their careers.

Race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	60	1:25:51.927	1	10
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	60	+13.951	3	8
3	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	60	+18.672	2	6
4	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	60	+19.976	5	5
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	60	+31.559	4	4
6	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	60	+1:04.769	8	3
7	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	60	+1:14.594	9	2
8	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	60	+1:18.299	10	1
9	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	60	+1:19.008	12
10	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	59	+1 lap	6
11	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	59	+1 lap	22
12	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	59	+1 lap	11
13	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	59	+1 lap	13
14	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	59	+1 lap	14
15	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	59	+1 lap	18
16	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	58	+2 laps	16
17	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	57	+3 laps	21
18	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	57	+3 laps	20
Ret	12	Jenson Button	Honda	8	Oil leak	19
Ret	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1	Collision damage	15
Ret	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	0	Collision	7
Ret	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	0	Collision	17
Source: [5]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 74 2 Michael Schumacher 51 1 3 Kimi Räikkönen 33 1 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 32 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 26 Source: [7]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Renault 106 2 Ferrari 75 3 McLaren-Mercedes 59 4 Honda 29 5 BMW Sauber 17 Source: [7]

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

See also

• 2006 Silverstone GP2 Series round

References

1. "British". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2006. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
2. "2006 British Grand Prix". Pitpass.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
3. "2006 Formula One Sporting Regulations" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 15 December 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 April 2006. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
4. "2006 FORMULA 1™ FOSTER'S BRITISH GRAND PRIX - PRACTICE 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
5. Domenjoz, Luc; et al. (February 2007). Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007. Chronosports S.A. p. 135. ISBN   978-2-84707-110-8.
6. "Britain 2006 • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
7. "Britain 2006 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.

External links

• Detailed British Grand Prix results ^{[ usurped ]} (archived)

Race reports

• Formula1.com (archived)
• GPUpdate.net
• Motorsport.com
• ManipeF1.com ^{[ usurped ]} (archived)

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