2006 Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix was the first round of the 2006 Formula One World Championship, held on March 12, 2006 at the Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain.

Qualifying

The race was the first run under the new 2006 qualifying rules, in which the one hour session is split into three 'knock out' parts. The first part eliminated Kimi Räikkönen (rear wishbone failure) and Ralf Schumacher, who was caught out by the red flag after Räikkönen's accident and failed to set a competitive time, as well as the MF1's and the two Super Aguris. The second part saw fewer surprises, with the expected runners lining up for the final top 10 part. The result was that the Ferraris swept the front row.

UK TV pundit Martin Brundle referred to the fuel credits used to represent the fuel used during qualifying as 'Tiger Tokens', referring to promotional points offered by the fuel company Esso in the United Kingdom.

The Race

At the start of the race, Fernando Alonso moved up to second in the first lap, only for Michael Schumacher to begin to pull away. Alonso was involved in a near collision with Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa, who spun at the first corner. Massa was never a threat after this point, not helped by a delay in his pit stop to change tyres the same lap. Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella also played little part in the race due to an engine mapping problem which restricted power. He retired on the 21st lap due to hydraulic failure. To the surprise of few, Kimi Räikkönen quickly moved his way up the field, only being delayed by Jacques Villeneuve and Fisichella for a short period of time, before passing both men.

Further down the field, Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg touched at the first corner. Both men were significantly delayed, but recovered. Heidfeld's day continued to get worse, as an incident with David Coulthard was investigated after the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished 5th in his McLaren, having never been a threat throughout the race. It was a good day for Williams on a whole, as Mark Webber finished in 6th, while Rosberg was the surprise of the race though, ending up a very respectable 7th, passing Christian Klien after catching him in the last few laps of the race, putting Klien down to a still impressive 8th. Rosberg set the fastest lap of the race, becoming the youngest driver ever to achieve this in a Grand Prix, breaking a record held by Alonso.

Honda suffered mixed fortunes throughout the race. Early on fans were treated to a fight between Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, as Button slipped down the order due to a slow getaway. Button eventually fought his way back up, twice passing Juan Pablo Montoya at the end of the straight but losing out again in pitstops. He eventually finished 4th, 0.6 seconds behind Räikkönen in 3rd. Räikkönen fought hard throughout the race, stopping only once on his way to the last podium spot. He rose 19 places in the race which is more than any driver since Fabrizio Barbazza started 25th and finished sixth in the 1993 San Marino Grand Prix.

At the second set of pit stops, Alonso was able to take advantage of staying out longer than Schumacher by coming out of the pit lane side by side with Schumacher. As they came into the first corner both cars were neck and neck, but Alonso was able to pull out in front of the former world champion. Despite coming under heavy pressure from Schumacher towards the end, the reigning champion started of the season with a well earned victory.

After a tussle with David Coulthard, Nick Heidfeld was reprimanded by stewards post-race for positioning his car in a way that forced Coulthard off the race circuit. Coulthard suffered engine failure on cool-down lap and received a 10-place grid penalty for 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix.

This was the first race for the Midland, BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Honda F1 and Super Aguri teams, although only Super Aguri was a completely new team, the others all representing buyouts or rebrandings of existing teams.

Friday Drivers

Constructor	Nat	Driver
Williams-Cosworth		Alexander Wurz
Honda		Anthony Davidson
Red Bull-Ferrari		Robert Doornbos
BMW Sauber		Robert Kubica
MF1-Toyota		Markus Winkelhock
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani
Super Aguri-Honda		none

Qualifying results

From :

Pos	Nat	Name	Constructor	Part 3	Part 2	Part 1
1		Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:31.431	1:32.025	1:33.310
2		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:31.478	1:32.014	1:33.579
3		Jenson Button	Honda	1:31.549	1:32.025	1:32.603
4		Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:31.702	1:31.215	1:32.433
5		Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.164	1:31.487	1:33.233
6		Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:32.579	1:32.322	1:33.922
7		Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:33.006	1:32.309	1:33.454
8		Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:33.112	1:32.106	1:34.308
9		Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:33.496	1:31.831	1:32.934
10		Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:33.926	1:31.958	1:33.374
11		Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber		1:32.456	1:33.882
12		Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth		1:32.620	1:32.945
13		David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari		1:32.850	1:33.678
14		Jarno Trulli	Toyota		1:33.066	1:33.987
15		Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth		1:33.416	1:34.439
16		Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth		1:34.606	1:33.995
17		Ralf Schumacher	Toyota			1:34.702
18		Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota			1:35.724
19		Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota			1:35.900
20		Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda			1:37.411
21		Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda			1:40.270
22		Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes			no time

Race

From :

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	57	1:29:46.205	4	10
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	57	+1.246	1	8
3	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+19.360	22	6
4	12	Jenson Button	Honda	57	+19.992	3	5
5	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+37.048	5	4
6	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	57	+41.932	7	3
7	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	57	+1:03.043	12	2
8	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	57	+1:06.771	8	1
9	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	57	+1:09.907	2
10	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	57	+1:15.541	13
11	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	57	+1:25.997	15
12	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	56	+1 Lap	10
13	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	56	+1 Lap	16
14	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	56	+1 Lap	17
15	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	56	+1 Lap	6
16	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	56	+1 Lap	14
17	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	55	+2 Laps	19
18	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	53	+4 Laps	20
Ret	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	35	Mechanical	21
Ret	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	29	Engine	11
Ret	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	21	Hydraulics	9
Ret	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	0	Driveshaft	18

Notes

• Lap Leaders: Michael Schumacher 1–15, 24–35 (27); Fernando Alonso 16–19, 36–39, 41–57 (25); Juan Pablo Montoya 20–23 (4); Jenson Button 40 (1).

Standings after the race

Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	10
2	Michael Schumacher	8
3	Kimi Räikkönen	6
4	Jenson Button	5
5	Juan Pablo Montoya	30

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	10
2	McLaren–Mercedes	10
3	Ferrari	8
4	Honda	5
5	Williams–Cosworth	5

References

External links

• Detailed Bahrain Grand Prix results