2006 European Grand Prix

Background

The event was held at the Nürburgring for the 36th time in the circuit's history. It was the 11th edition of the European Grand Prix at this venue and the fifth round of the 2006 championship.

Championship standings before the race

Fernando Alonso had been leading the championship since the get-go and had already gathered 36 points. Michael Schumacher's thrilling victory in Imola had lifted him into second place with 21 points. Kimi Räikkönen was in third with 18 points.

Driver changes

Franck Montagny was originally scheduled to act as the third driver for Super Aguri, but was promoted to a race seat after team driver Yuji Ide had his FIA Super License revoked for erratic driving in prior races that season. Ide was set to act as the team's third driver for this race, according to the team, until the revocation came down. The license revocation meant Ide could no longer participate in Formula One.

Practice

Three free practice sessions were held. The first and second session were headed by Williams's third driver Alexander Wurz, before the third and most representative session saw the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa top the timings.

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:

Qualifying

The qualifying session was affected by a red flag situation appearing during Q1 with 3½ minutes left on the timing monitors. Unfortunately, this was due to a software glitch in the timing system, and the session was quickly restarted. Jacques Villeneuve initially finished outside the top 16, but his time, set on a lap which he finished during the red flag, was reinstated. This placed him 7th in the session. Christian Klien had abandoned his lap, thinking it would not count, and he felt to have lost out through it.

;Notes

• – Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg both had their engines changed, and were both dropped ten places on the grid on Sunday. They started the race in 19th and 22nd places respectively.
• – Jacques Villeneuve originally qualified 8th with a time of 1:31.542, but his fastest three laps from the third qualifying session were deleted due to blocking the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Race

The race was held on 7 May 2006 and was run for 60 laps.

Race report

Fernando Alonso kept his lead at the start. Felipe Massa challenged his teammate for second, but Michael Schumacher held on through the first corner. Ralf Schumacher hit Vitantonio Liuzzi, who then collided with David Coulthard. Liuzzi was left stranded on track, which brought out the safety car. Coulthard recovered to do a pit stop but retired a lap later. The safety car was deployed for three laps.

At the restart, Kimi Räikkönen passed Jenson Button for fourth but little else changed in the order. The front runners pitted on laps 17 and 18 and kept their relative positions. Alonso and Schumacher traded fastest laps until the Renault driver pitted on lap 38. The German was now in free air and pushed his Ferrari for three more laps. He rejoined the race a whopping five seconds ahead of his Spanish rival and managed to extend his advantage even further.

In the final stages, Massa and Räikkönen challenged Alonso for second place, but did not take any risks and the order was unchanged. Massa scored his first podium finish in Formula One.

Race classification

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

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

References

References

1. "2006 European Grand Prix".
2. "Europe".
3. "Montagny joins Super Aguri as third driver for European GP". pitpass.com.
4. "Ide replaced by Montagny for Super Aguri". pitpass.com.
5. "Ide's Superlicence revoked". pitpass.com.
6. "2006 FORMULA 1™ GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE".
7. Domenjoz, Luc. (February 2007). "Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007". Chronosports S.A..
8. "2006 FORMULA 1™ GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE".
9. "Europe 2006 • STATS F1".
10. Domenjoz, Luc. (February 2007). "Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007". Chronosports S.A..
11. "Europe 2006 - Championship • STATS F1".