2006 Spanish Grand Prix - Result - The Return Of The King
May 14th, 2006 by Haas
Fernando Alonso became the first Spaniard to win the Spanish Grand Prix and joined an exclusive club of drivers who have won their home Grand Prix. In a race which saw the fastest lap in Qualification being posted by a Ferrari(Michael Schumacher Session 2- 1m 14.637s) and a Ferrari posting the fastest lap of the race (Felipe Massa), Fernado Reigned supreme being fastest on 90% of the laps. The grit and the determination by the Spaniard helped him seal the most dominating victory in a very long time… more importantly at home.
Michael Schumacher could not reply to Alonso’s pace the German in comparison was faster than Alonso only for a handful of laps(not considering the laps Alonso pitted). Michael had no choice but to settle for the second spot. His strategy in the pits helped him leapfrog the other Renault and helped him keep the damage in the world championships to the minimum. Fisichella came in with a much better performace than he managed earlier in the year save the one occasion where he went into the gravel while lapping the midlands.
Massa came in 4th close behind the Renault. Kimi followed the top two teams in a Mc Laren that clearly needs to improve to give Kimi a shot at the world championship. The two Hondas lead by Button finished 6th and 7th with Heidfeld picking up the last point.
The race was dissapointment for Coulthard, this race marked his 200th GP and also saw him finish his 10000th lap. He struggled in his ill handling Red Bull to take 14th. Rosberg put up a good performance to take 11th on the grid fighting all the way.
The race saw some really bad work by the race stewards… There was hardly any blue flags in the race costing the top runners a bunch of time. When Montoya retired from the race his car was halfway on a chicane, a clear Safety Car period but race control only showed yellow flags surprising everyone. The situation took 3 laps to rectify and could hv caused a clear accident. The Safety car would hv spiced up stuff in the race if it was called… I doubt Michael would hv won but it would hv got very intresting as Ferrari would hv been thrown a chance to challenge Alonso.
As the race neared the end the sea of Blue and Yellow(with a few specks of Red) erupted into a frenzy to welcome their home hero to the highest honour on the track. “The Return of the King” in the subject line is not to show that Alonso has won again(quiet frankly he has not been losing either… Second in the last 2 races), its more for the Success after a gruelling 4 years in formula one to achieve the best at home.
In 2001 in a Minardi Alonso stood up to be recognized taking the chequered flag in 13th spot ahead of both the Benetton-Renaults. Both Alonso and Renault hv come a long way since. In 2003 Alonso showed his talent in Renault that was clearly 4th best on the track(among cars) fighting for victory with Michael Schumacher and finishing 13.5s ahead of Barrichello. In 2004 Alonso produced a spirited performace to recover from 8th on the grid to 4th ahead of both BAR Hondas. In 2005 the year the youngest champ was crowned, Alonso stuck behind Kimi to take the flag in second.
This was clearly the one to win for Alonso and now the Formula One circus moves to Monaco. Kimi dominated it last year taking victory ahead of both the BMW Williams… The year before saw Trulli win for Renault in brilliant fashion and saw Alonso and Micheal retire from the race both were in 2nd spot when they crashed out. This time around it will be Alonso v/s Michael… Massa and Fisi hv joined the party but will Mc Laren show up before all hope is lost? Only time can tell.
2006 Spanish Grand Prix
Pos Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 66 Winner 1 10 2 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 66 +18.5 secs 3 8 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 66 +23.9 secs 2 6 4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 66 +29.8 secs 4 5 5 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 66 +56.8 secs 9 4 6 Jenson Button Honda 66 +58.3 secs 8 3 7 Rubens Barrichello Honda 65 +1 Lap 5 2 8 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 65 +1 Lap 10 1 9 Mark Webber WilliamsCosworth 65 +1 Lap 11 10 Jarno Trulli Toyota 65 +1 Lap 7 11 Nico Rosberg WilliamsCosworth 65 +1 Lap 13 12 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW 65 +1 Lap 22 13 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 14 14 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 21 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 63 +3 Lap 15 16 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 63 +3 Lap 17 17 Takuma Sato SuperAguri-Honda 62 +4 Lap 19 Ret Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 48 +18 Lap 18 Ret Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 47 +19 Lap 16 Ret Ralf Schumacher Toyota 31 +35 Laps 6 Ret Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 17 +49 Laps 12 Ret Franck Montagny SuperAguri-Honda 10 +56 Laps 20