Monaco Grand Prix 2006

The most prestigious race in the World Cup in Monaco was won by Fernando Alonso , starting from the pole and confidently holding the lead to the finish. Kimi Raikkonen, who was closely pursuing him, came down on the 51st lap due to engine failure, depriving the struggle for the victory of intrigue. However, in the last part of the race, a series of gatherings and other events led to an unpredictable race result, starting from 3rd place, which went to David Coulthard . The decoration of the Grand Prix was also the breakthrough of Michael Schumacher from 22nd place to 5th.

Start

At the start, Fernando Alonso confidently held the lead, and Kimi Raikkonen tried to overtake Mark Webber . Tom managed to keep the Finn behind him, but due to a small mistake on the 2nd lap, he let Raikkonen go forward, after which Kimi kept close to Alonso until he left. Right from the start, Michael Schumacher attacked very aggressively and five pilots passed 2 laps despite the fact that his car was refueled by 1 pit stop .

An incident occurred between the Midland F1 team pilots on the starting line: Tiago Monteiro, who started from 17th place, tried to get his partner Christian Albers , but he blocked his path and made contact, as a result of which Monteiro damaged elements of the front wing and was forced to go to the pit stop .

First Pit Stop

Since overtaking Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen has closely pursued Fernando Alonso in the fight for 1st place. There were even attempts to attack, but due to the characteristics of the route (narrow route, especially the turns) they did not lead to anything. Raikkonen and Alonso several times exchanged the best circles. Webber and Montoya followed with a slight lag. Rubens Barrichello quickly lagged behind (6.5 seconds behind Montoya on the 6th lap, 14 on the 10th), thus restraining the pilots following him. Michael Schumacher's breakthrough stopped when the German ran into Jenson Button , marching 15th. The incident at the start between the MidlandF1 team cars was investigated by the stewards, Christian Albers was found guilty and on the 18th lap was punished by passing on the pit lane .

The first wave of pit stops opened McLaren , which explained their high places in qualifying and the first segment of the race. Juan Pablo Montoya went to the pit stop on the 21st lap, and Kimi Raikkonen - on the 22nd. Due to the great advantage in speed of the four leaders, they all managed to return after pit stops, not giving way to Rubens Barrichello , who was 5th. Fernando Alonso went to refuel on the 24th lap and, thanks to a pit stop later than Raikkonen, did not yield to the Finnish leadership, although the gap between them was a little more than a second. On the 25th lap, Mark Webber made his pit stop. He returned to the 3rd track without changing the order in the leadership group.

After the 1st pit stop, Alonso lost speed for several laps, but by the 36th lap he was able to regain pace. Starting from the 42nd lap, Alonso and the next right behind him Raikkonen began to overtake a group of a large number of riders. The complexity of this maneuver was that the riders who lagged behind in a circle fought among themselves, and Alonso and Raikkonen who were also fighting among themselves, overtook them in a circle. Overtaking took place without interference for the leaders, but as a result of them there were several funny moments: among the circle was Giancarlo Fisichella , partner Alonso, having the same coloring. Therefore, some riders on the radio were informed when they should pass the blue car (Alonso), and when not (Fisichella). Perhaps it was precisely with a misunderstanding of the situation that the ease with which Fisichella passed Jacques Villeneuve was associated.

Judging by the negotiations with the team on the radio, Mark Webber was dissatisfied with the intransigence of those who were circular to himself: indeed, after he managed a group of lagging behind, he lost to Raikkonen for 7 seconds, although before that he came right behind the Finn.

Safety Car

On the 47th lap, Mark Webber came down because of problems with the engine, although judging by the speed of his car, he could even fight for victory in the race. Webber stopped in a dangerous place at the exit of the Ste Devote turn , so a safety car appeared on the track. Since most pilots had planned a 2nd pit stop , they took the opportunity to go on refueling. According to Kimi Raikkonen , it was planned that with the normal course of the race, he would have recovered to the 2nd pit stop later than Fernando Alonso , which, perhaps, would have allowed him to get ahead of the Spaniard. However, the simultaneous pit stop because of the safety car thwarted these plans.

However, the struggle for the victory still did not work, because on the 51st lap the engine on the Kimi Raikkonen car burned out. A possible reason for this is the engine overheating due to the low speed behind the pace car. Since there were 5 roundabouts between the leader Alonso and the second Montoya , the Spaniard was not difficult to maintain leadership and organize a large gap.

Results Table

Best lap: Michael Schumacher - 1: 15,143, on the 74th lap.

Race leaders: Fernando Alonso : 1–23, 25–78 (77); Mark Webber : 24 (1).

In the last round of qualification, Michael Schumacher stopped at La Rascasse hairpin, which caused the appearance of yellow flags, forcing other pilots to slow down. Immediately after the session, there were complaints from other teams that this was a Ferrari conscious move, in order to make sure that Michael Schumacher will start from the pole position. Although Schumacher insisted that he was simply mistaken, the stewards after the investigation annulled his time in qualification. Thus, he was supposed to start from the 22nd position, but chose to start from the pit lane. [2]

Notes:

• ‡: The result of Michael Schumacher was completely annulled, since the German stop at the end of the qualification was recognized as his fault.

The best time in the first session of the free races was shown by Fernando Alonso (1: 16,712). The most noteworthy incident happened to Kimi Raikkonen : after several laps, the Finn's car was smoking. Raikkonen took the fire extinguisher from the marshal and tried to put out the fire himself. After analyzing the fire, it was decided that there would be no replacement of the motor, since the cause of the breakdown was the burning of the insulation of the wiring laid behind the heat shield. Interestingly, the gathering of Kimi Raikkonen in the race occurred for the same reason. ^[2]

The best time in the second part of the Friday races belongs to Alexander Wurtz from the Williams team (1: 15,907). The session was stopped three times with red flags due to accident pilots on the narrow highway of Monaco . Detailed results of Friday's free races: [3] .

On Saturday, only the main pilots of the teams participated in the free races. The results shown by them significantly exceeded the results of Friday's races. Fernando Alonso has the best time: 1: 13.823. Detailed results of Saturday's free races: [4] .

The best time of the weekend was interrupted in the 2nd part of the qualification by Kimi Raikkonen : 1: 13.532.

• Fernando Alonso for the first time in his career won the Monaco Grand Prix , “the pearl of the World Cup”, a great honor for any pilot.
• David Coulthard brought the first podium to the Red Bull team. In addition, Coulthard did this in his 200th race.
• Juan Pablo Montoya scored 300th point in his career, and Giancarlo Fisichella scored 200th. Rubens Barrichello and completely entered the "club 500", gaining the 500th point. According to the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, having scored 502 points per career, he was second only to Schumacher (1291 points), Prost (798.5 points), Senna (614 points) and Coulthard (506 points).
• On May 26, one of the two directors of the Michelin tire company, Edward Michelin , was killed. Fernando Alonso dedicated his victory to him, and the racers on the podium as a sign of mourning did not begin to make showers of champagne .
• Michael Schumacher’s result in qualification was canceled, because after the investigation, the FIA found him guilty of deliberately stopping the car on the highway.
• The result of the qualification at the Monaco Grand Prix was the worst in history for the Ferrari team: before this Grand Prix, the pilots of this team had never started from the last row. Until now, the worst result was considered the qualification before the Canadian Grand Prix of 1980 , when Gilles Villeneuve started 22nd (out of 24 cars), and Jody Scheckter did not qualify. If you count only those results when both riders qualified, the worst result was the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix . Then Schumacher qualified 14th, and Felipe Massa - 21th. See also: [5] .
• The Red Bull team continues to support the cinema : at the Monaco Grand Prix, the team used the symbols of the movie “Superman Returns” , and David Coulthard climbed the catwalk in the red cloak of a popular hero. This Monaco Grand Prix was no exception: in 2005, Red Bull advertised the movie Star Wars. Episode III. Revenge of the Sith ” , and in 2004 - “ Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ” (and then it was the predecessor of Red Bull - the Jaguar team).

Press conferences at the Monaco Grand Prix took place on Wednesday and Thursday instead of Thursday and Friday, respectively, since free ones are traditionally postponed from Friday to Thursday.

• Wednesday Participants: Rubens Barrichello (Honda), David Coulthard (Red Bull), Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Alexander Wurz (Williams).
• Thursday Participants: Gerhard Berger (Toro Rosso), Flavio Briatore (Renault), Christian Horner (Red Bull), Jean Todt (Ferrari).
• Saturday . The owners of the first 3 places on the starting grid took part in the press conference: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Mark Webber (Williams).
• Sunday . Participants were riders who took places on the podium: Fernando Alonso (Renault), Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren), David Coulthard (Red Bull).

1. ↑ Edward Michelin died in a shipwreck on his own yacht off the coast of France : [1] .
2. ↑ “Alas, when the safety car pulled out on the track, the heat shield in the car could not stand the wiring and my race was over,” commented Kimi Raikkonen after the race.

race chart - McLarenf-1.com

• (English) 2006 Monaco Grand Prix - Grand Prix results on the official website.
• After the race - comments by pilots and team leaders after the race.