2006 Italian Grand Prix

2006 Italian Grand Prix
Race 15 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
The Monza circuit after modified in 2000
Race details
Date	10 September 2006
Official name	Formula 1 Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2006
Location	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.793 km (3.6 miles)
Distance	53 laps, 307.029 km (190.8 miles)
Weather	Warm and sunny with temperatures reaching up to 27 °C (81 °F) [1]
Pole position
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1.21.484
Fastest lap
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:22.559 on lap 13
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber
Lap leaders

The 2006 Italian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2006) ^[2] was a Formula One motor race held on 10 September 2006 at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. It was the fifteenth race of the 2006 Formula One season, and was won by Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari car.

Immediately following the race, Schumacher announced that he would retire from motor racing at the end of the 2006 season. Robert Kubica achieved his first career podium finish, in only his third Grand Prix. It was also only the second Grand Prix meeting appearance of Kubica's Friday driver successor, Sebastian Vettel. Vettel had impressed at the Turkish Grand Prix by setting the fastest time in one session, but he set the fastest time in both Friday practice sessions at this Grand Prix. ^{[3] [4]} The race was also the first race to see the introduction of a new High Speed Barrier developed by the FIA Institute and the FIA. The system, which was installed at the end of the run-off areas at the circuit's second chicane and Parabolica corners, was designed for use at corners with high speed approaches and limited run-off areas. ^[5] Also this was the last race of the Red Bull driver Christian Klien, until his return to a race seat at the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix.

After the race, in the press conference, Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula One. ^[6] On the same day, it was announced that Ferrari would replace Schumacher with Kimi Räikkönen. The race was his 90th victory. Four years later however in 2010, Schumacher returned to F1 with Mercedes.

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		Sebastian Vettel
MF1-Toyota		Giorgio Mondini
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani
Super Aguri-Honda		Franck Montagny

Race report

At the start Kimi Räikkönen got away in the lead with Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld tussling over 2nd. By lap 2 Fernando Alonso was up to 6th past Heidfeld as Schumacher and Räikkönen begin to pull clear of the rest. On lap 10 Nico Rosberg lost power in his Williams and was the first retirement, his 4th consecutive retirement. On lap 15 Räikkönen pitted from the lead and two laps later Schumacher came in and jumped him, Robert Kubica took the lead stopping much later, on lap 23, which allowed Schumacher into the lead for the first time in the race. On lap 44 there was drama when Alonso pulled over with a smoky Renault after an engine failure, this caused a problem for Massa who locked up behind him and went off before pitting to change tyres. Michael Schumacher cruised to victory ahead of Räikkönen, with Kubica claiming his first podium in 3rd place. ^[7]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.994	1:21.349	1:21.484	1
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:21.711	1:21.353	1:21.486	2
3	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:21.764	1:21.425	1:21.653	3
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:22.028	1:21.225	1:21.704	4
5	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:22.512	1:21.572	1:22.011	5
6	17	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:22.437	1:21.270	1:22.258	6
7	4	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.422	1:21.878	1:22.280	7
8	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:22.640	1:21.688	1:22.787	8
9	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:22.486	1:21.722	1:23.175	9
10	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:21.747	1:21.526	1:25.688	10 1
11	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:22.093	1:21.924		11
12	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:22.581	1:22.203		12
13	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:22.622	1:22.280		13
14	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:22.618	1:22.589		14
15	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:22.943	1:23.165		15
16	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:22.898	No time		16
17	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:23.043			17
18	19	Christijan Albers	Spyker MF1-Toyota	1:23.116			18
19	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.341			19
20	18	Tiago Monteiro	Spyker MF1-Toyota	1:23.920			20
21	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:24.289			21
22	23	Sakon Yamamoto	Super Aguri-Honda	1:26.001			22
Source: [8]

Notes

• ^1 – Fernando Alonso originally qualified with a time of 1:21.829 in Q3, but had his three fastest Q3 times deleted, effectively demoting him from fifth to tenth, after Monza stewards controversially penalized him, judging he had impeded Ferrari's Felipe Massa during qualifying. ^[9]

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	53	1:14:51.975	2	10
2	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+8.046	1	8
3	17	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	53	+26.414	6	6
4	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	53	+32.045	9	5
5	12	Jenson Button	Honda	53	+32.685	5	4
6	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	53	+42.409	8	3
7	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	53	+44.662	11	2
8	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	53	+45.309	3	1
9	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	53	+45.995	4
10	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	53	+72.602	19
11	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	52	+1 lap	16
12	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	52	+1 lap	14
13	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	52	+1 lap	15
14	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	52	+1 lap	17
15	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	52	+1 lap	13
16	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	51	+2 laps	21
17	19	Christijan Albers	Spyker MF1-Toyota	51	+2 laps	18
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	Spyker MF1-Toyota	44	Brakes	20
Ret	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	43	Engine	10
Ret	4	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren-Mercedes	20	Engine	7
Ret	23	Sakon Yamamoto	Super Aguri-Honda	18	Hydraulics	22
Ret	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	9	Driveshaft	12
Source: [10]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso* 108 2 Michael Schumacher* 106 3 Felipe Massa 62 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 57 5 Kimi Räikkönen 57 Source: [11]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 1 Ferrari* 168 1 2 Renault* 165 3 McLaren-Mercedes 97 4 Honda 65 1 5 BMW Sauber 33 Source: [11]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
• Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

See also

• 2006 Monza GP2 Series round

References

1. Weather info for the 2006 Italian Grand Prix at Weather Underground
2. "Italia". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
3. "FORMULA 1 Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2006". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 21 August 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
4. "FORMULA 1 Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2006". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 15 August 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
5. The High Speed Safety Barrier FIA.com. Retrieved 4 October 2006 Archived 17 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Schumacher confirms his retirement". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
7. "As it happened: Italian GP". BBC Sport . 10 September 2006. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
8. "Italian GP - Saturday - Qualifying Session 1 Results". GrandPrix.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
9. "Alonso punished for blocking Massa". Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2006.
10. "Italian GP - Sunday - Race Results". GrandPrix.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
11. "Italy 2006 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

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