2006 Australian Grand Prix - Results - Alonso Wins… Again
Apr 4th, 2006 by Haas
Alonso made sure it rained on Button’s parade by taking the lead of the race as early as lap 3 and holding it to register his 10th win and 2nd win of the season. Button’s sad day had just started… The incident packed day saw as many as 4 safety car periods and 2 incidents even before the lights went green.
Montoya started the fiasco of a race by spinning in the warm up lap. Giancarlo was the next casualty when his engine stalled and he was forced into the pitlane to start at the back of the grid. The race start was perfect for Button as he held his place to a charging Alonso… Alonso was clearly the faster of the two and was pushing Button to the edge… Behind them the two Mc Larens fought tooth and nail and Raikkonen held his place to Montoya.
The first safety car was called right on the first lap when Massa was forced out of the track in the first couple of corners… The restart saw a charging Alonso overtake Button with ease and then put some amazing laptimes to extend his lead. Button continued to be under pressure by the Mc Larens…
The first pitstop showed the story of the qualification, Lap 18 - Montoya, 19 - Button and Fisi, 20 - Alonso and 21 - Kimi… The fuel loads were very similar for the top runners… Button’s Qualification pace was indeed impressive.
Before each restart Alonso’s lead to driver in 2nd place was always large(7.5 s in the second restart, 25 in the third) clearly showing the Spaniards ability to pull away after restarts. Renault attributed their amazing start to aptly heating up their tyres…
Alonso scorching pace sealed his victory, Kimi’s second place again relives the Mc Laren hope to stop the Renault Juggernaut. The race was disappointing for Button whose engine gave up on the last lap and he followed team orders and stopped meters from the line to avoid getting a 10 place penalty for the next race.
Ralf and made most of the safety cars to get a good result for their teams… Michael and Massa would clearly be disappointed by this performance… Ferrari is slowly looking like a team in trouble.
Over to Imola, to Ferrari’s backyard… Last year Alonso held back a charging Schumacher to win arguably his best race ever. 3 weeks to go and lets see if Ferrari can come back.