2006 Malaysian Grand Prix

  2006 Malaysian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 2 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One season
The Sepang Circuit
Date	March 19, 2006
Official name	VIII Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix
Location	Sepang International Circuit Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.54 km (3.44 mi)
Distance	56 laps, 310.408 km (192.878 mi)
Weather	Fine, Air Temp: 33°C, Wind Speed: 1.5 m/s, Humidity: 61%
Pole position
Driver	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault
Time	1:33.840
Fastest lap
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Time	1:34.803 on lap 45
Podium
First	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault
Second	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Third	Jenson Button	Honda

The 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally the VIII Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor, Malaysia on 19 March 2006. The race, contested over 56 laps, was the second round of the 2006 Formula One season and the eighth running of the Malaysian Grand Prix as a World Championship race. It was won by Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella, who took the final of his three victories in Formula One, and scored his first points of the season. He had also started on pole position. His team-mate, Fernando Alonso, finished second to extend his lead in the drivers' championship standings to 7 points. Jenson Button took the first podium in Honda's three year return to the sport by finishing in third place.

Qualifying on Saturday saw the new rules being put to the test, as David Coulthard, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher were all forced to swap engines from the Bahrain GP and therefore lost 10 places on the starting grid after qualifying, despite many of them competing in later sessions (Massa actually changed his engine twice, causing him to lose 20 places). This meant some drivers, such as the Toro Rosso's of Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi were eliminated in the first session, but would have been spared elimination had those with engine penalties been eliminated at this point (although Ralf Schumacher's engine blew during the last session). Three cars with the Ferrari V8 suffered from engine problems during qualifying.

Report

Qualifying

Nico Rosberg qualified third in only his second race.

The first session gave no surprises, as the Super Aguri, Midland and Toro Rosso cars all went out, while the second session saw another set of poor performances from Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli, while Massa and Coulthard also went out along with both the Sauber cars. In the final pole position session, Ralf Schumacher's engine blew, while Fernando Alonso could only manage 7th place after a problem with his fuel calculation meant he was carrying too much fuel during the session. Kimi Räikkönen was tipped as a favourite having qualified 6th, while Juan Pablo Montoya put himself on the third row alongside his teammate in 5th. The two big surprises of qualifying were Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber in their Williams. Rosberg posted the third fastest time, while Webber was moved up to 4th after Michael Schumacher's engine penalty dropped him to 14th. Jenson Button took provisional pole, but it was Giancarlo Fisichella who ended the session in 1st with his Renault, demoting Button to 2nd.

Race

Giancarlo Fisichella led at the start of the race.

The race began with Rosberg and Webber being caught out by Alonso coming into the first corner, who managed to grab 3rd from his starting position. Fisichella and Button maintained their spots, but further back Räikkönen's day ended early having been hit by Christian Klien during the first lap. Klien's car was badly damaged, but the Red Bull mechanics repaired the car enough to send it back out, although he later retired due to a hydraulics problem. More problems followed for the better qualifiers, as Rosberg's engine blew on the 6th lap, while Webber also retired nine laps after his teammate. Further down the field, Massa and the Schumacher brothers made their way up the field throughout the day. The lead was only held by three people throughout the race, with Alonso's fuel problems actually giving him the advantage over Button, with Alonso managing to take second by staying out longer.

Several other cars retired during the race, with only 14 cars remaining at the end. Takuma Sato managed to finish another race in his Super Aguri. Ralf Schumacher managed to get his Toyota into 8th place, having started dead last. Schumacher threatened Jacques Villeneuve towards the end laps, but was not able to pass for 7th. The two Ferrari’s were able to pull themselves into 5th and 6th place, but it was Massa who claimed the higher spot, beating Michael Schumacher despite pressure at the end. Juan Montoya was unspectacular once again, but another strong performance allowed him to reach 4th.

Jenson Button pouring champagne on Giancarlo Fisichella during the podium ceremony after the race.

After the pit stops were completed, it was never doubted that Fisichella would win, and with Button slowing off the pace, content with third, it fell to Renault to pick up their first one-two finish as a constructor since the 1982 French Grand Prix, with the World Champion going clear at the top of the points table by seven points, despite only finishing second to Fisichella.

Even among the drivers who took engine penalties, a variety of strategies were attempted - Ralf Schumacher stopped 3 times during the Grand Prix while Felipe Massa stopped once.

Classification

Qualifying

From:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:35.488	1:33.623	1:33.840	1
2	12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:35.023	1:33.527	1:33.986	2
3	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:35.105	1:34.563	1:34.626	3
4	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:35.810	1:34.574	1:34.668	141
5	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	1:35.252	1:34.279	1:34.672	4
6	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.536	1:34.568	1:34.916	5
7	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.667	1:34.351	1:34.983	6
8	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:35.514	1:33.997	1:35.747	7
9	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:35.171	1:34.537	1:38.715	8
10	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:35.214	1:34.586	no time	222
11	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	1:34.839	1:34.614		193
12	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:35.526	1:34.683		203
13	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:35.517	1:34.702		9
14	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1:35.391	1:34.752		10
15	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:35.588	1:34.783		11
16	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35.091	no time4		214
17	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:36.297			12
18	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:36.581			13
19	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	1:37.426			15
20	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	1:37.819			16
21	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:39.011			17
22	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	1:40.720			18
Source:

Notes

1. — Michael Schumacher was handed a 10 place grid penalty following an engine change after the Saturday morning practice session.
2. — Ralf Schumacher was handed a 10 place grid penalty following an engine change after his engine blew during the second session. Resultantly he was unable to compete in the final part of qualifying - Q3.
3. — David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello were also handed 10 place grid penalties following engine changes.
4. — Felipe Massa was handed a 10 place grid penalty following an engine change prior to the qualfying session. In order to conserve the engine he sat out the second qualifying session - Q2.

Race

From:

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	56	1:30:40.529	1	10
2	1	Fernando Alonso	Renault	56	+4.585	7	8
3	12	Jenson Button	Honda	56	+9.631	2	6
4	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+39.351	5	5
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+43.254	21	4
6	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	56	+43.854	14	3
7	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	56	+1:20.461	10	2
8	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	56	+1:21.288	22	1
9	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	55	+1 Lap	9
10	11	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	55	+1 Lap	20
11	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	54	+2 Laps	13
12	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	54	+2 Laps	15
13	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	54	+2 Laps	16
14	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	53	+3 Laps	17
Ret	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	48	Engine	11
Ret	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	41	Clutch	12
Ret	23	Yuji Ide	Super Aguri-Honda	33	Throttle	18
Ret	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	26	Hydraulics	8
Ret	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	15	Hydraulics	4
Ret	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Ferrari	10	Hydraulics	19
Ret	10	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Cosworth	6	Engine	3
Ret	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	6

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 18 2= Michael Schumacher 11 2= Jenson Button 11 4 Giancarlo Fisichella 10 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 9

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Renault 28 2= Ferrari 15 2= McLaren-Mercedes 15 4 Honda 11 5 Williams-Cosworth 5

External links

• Detailed Malaysian Grand Prix results

Previous race: 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2006 season	Next race: 2006 Australian Grand Prix
Previous race: 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix	Malaysian Grand Prix	Next race: 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.