June 12, 2006
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British Grand Prix 2006
Standings after British GP
Racing series
F1
Date
2006-06-11
Drivers’ Championship:
Pos
Driver
Nat
Team
Points
1.
Fernando Alonso
E
Renault
74
2.
Michael Schumacher
D
Ferrari
51
3.
Kimi Raikkonen
FIN
McLaren-Mercedes
33
4.
Giancarlo Fisichella
I
Renault
32
5.
Juan Pablo Montoya
COL
McLaren-Mercedes
26
6.
Felipe Massa
BR
Ferrari
24
7.
Jenson Button
GB
Honda
16
8.
Rubens Barrichello
BR
Honda
13
9.
Nick Heidfeld
D
BMW
10
10.
Ralf Schumacher
D
Toyota
8
11.
David Coulthard
GB
Red Bull-Ferrari
7
12.
Jacques Villeneuve
CDN
BMW
7
13.
Mark Webber
AUS
Williams-Cosworth
6
14.
Nico Rosberg
D
Williams-Cosworth
4
15.
Christian Klien
A
Red Bull-Ferrari
1
Constructors’ Championship:
Pos
Constructor
Nat
Points
1.
Renault
F
106
2.
Ferrari
I
74
3.
McLaren-Mercedes
GB
60
4.
Honda
J
29
5.
BMW
D
17
6.
Williams-Cosworth
GB
10
7.
Toyota
J
8
8.
Red Bull-Ferrari
GB
8
British GP: Winners’ press conference
British GP: Winners’ press conference
Racing series
F1
Date
2006-06-11
British Grand Prix FIA winners’ press conference transcript with
1. Fernando Alonso (Renault), 1h25m51.927s
2. Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 1h26m05.878s
3. Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren), 1h26m10.599s
Q: Fernando, that looked to be a perfectly judged race for you and in some ways, on home soil too.
Fernando Alonso: Yes, it’s true. Victory today was quite OK for us. Yesterday, getting pole position made the thing a little bit easier, starting from pole. Today, we saw that we had more fuel than the others yesterday in qualifying so this also helped in terms of strategy and things like that. The tyres performed really well all through the race so there weren’t many opportunities for opponents to beat us and this is good news for the rest of the season. But we have to take the advantage now. We had a good car, no problems, no mechanical problems and we are taking good points, step by step.
Q: Your race was very much defined by the early phase, a lot of pressure from Kimi and Michael but you managed to pull away tenth by tenth in that early phase of the race.
Fernando Alonso: Yes, in the first two laps after the safety car Kimi was very quick. We had a little bit too much understeer. We prepared the car to be quick at the end of the stints. Lap by lap the car was feeling better and better, so I built a gap in the first stint and then I controlled it a little bit for the rest of the race. I had some graining problems in the second stint but nothing big and as I said, tyres were again perfect today. Thanks to all the team, all the mechanics and for the tyres; victory was in our hands again.
Q: How does it feel to win here at Silverstone, in Britain.
Fernando Alonso: Fantastic. To be honest, winning in Spain, Monaco, Silverstone, for me, the last three races is a dream come true. They are circuits with big names and big emotions. Great atmosphere at this circuit, it’s all about Formula One and to win in this country, 20 minutes away from my home in Oxford is for me a really good feeling and I’ve had a fantastic day.
Q: Michael, a great drive to second place, taking second place in the second pit stops there, but very close racing with Kimi right at the start, almost touched wheels going into Abbey?
Michael Schumacher: Touched sidepods, I would say. I was already at the limit of the circuit. He didn’t want to give me the inside so I had to try the outside. The rest worked out fine. We obviously got stuck in the early stages of the race but nevertheless, I have to say that we weren’t quick enough this weekend but we will keep on working on that.
Q: That was a great period of the race when you did take second place from Kimi. Talk us through that: very quick on that lap after your tyre change, fastest in sectors two and three.
Michael Schumacher: We knew we had two sets of new tyres left. We knew that all the other guys chose to use their new set at the start, so they had no new sets left, so that was the only strategy we could pull out, to come in a lap early and then have a lap free of traffic and then build a gap to second and then get into second.
Q: Kimi, it was very close with Michael there going into Abbey. What was it like in that early phase of the race for you, with Michael and also Fernando just in front of you?
Kimi Raikkonen: We were really a bit too slow in a straight line to challenge anyone. I got quite close to Fernando after the safety car and on the first lap I just couldn’t quite pass him. Then I was in front of Michael and I didn’t know that we got so close but we didn’t hit each other which was good. It wasn’t an easy race, we weren’t quick enough so there wasn’t much we could do, but I did the best I could and we finished third. I think that was maximum that we could have done today.
Q: A good podium finish for you, but Giancarlo Fisichella was very close to you in the closing stages. What condition was your car in at that point?
Kimi Raikkonen: It wasn’t perfect. I lost the rear end a little bit at the end of the race and I also got the lapped traffic in the first sector and Fisichella was always very quick through there. It was sometimes a bit difficult when you follow someone and on the back straight he was quick, but he wasn’t too much of a problem. But I could have done without it also, but I’m happy with third place.
Q: Fernando, the run goes on: incredible reliability, a string of podium finishes for you, eight in a row now, it’s been an amazing season.
Fernando Alonso: Yes, so far it has been fantastic: three wins and three seconds. Obviously there’s nothing more to find in the car. We’re running on the limit of the car. No mechanical problems, a fantastic job from all the people in the team, and for sure, we need to keep doing things like this. I think the best defence from now on will be attacking and keep winning races is what we have to do.
Q: Fernando, early on, Kimi seemed to be really having a go at you in those opening laps. How close was it?
Fernando Alonso: Very close. We prepared the car to be quicker in the middle and end of the stints, so for the first two laps, I had a little bit too much understeer and for sure, during the first and second laps I wasn’t quick enough and Kimi obviously tried, but we had good straight line speed and it wasn’t easy to overtake us, so we were lucky with that.
Q: And after that, no problems with the car?
Fernando Alonso: Well, the conditions haven’t been easy all weekend here. It was very windy in the high speed corners so there were some surprises on some of the laps. Lap by lap the circuit was changing a little bit so you have to guess when you arrive at a corner, but no, not really. The car performed really well. I had a little bit of graining during the second stint but the gap was big enough not to have too many worries.
Q: You all seem to be quite hot and tired after that race; how was it?
Fernando Alonso: Well, we are not used to this temperature in England and I think we have all been a little bit surprised. It’s quite tough, this circuit, with these high speed corners, especially this year with the V8, very quick through the corners, and yeah, it was quite a physical race.
Q: Michael, second place, was the car good, good enough for first, do you think?
Michael Schumacher: Don’t know! It was going well, I didn’t have any particular issues or problems but it’s a bit difficult for me to analyse where we could have been and what could have happened. You guys sit there, have all the information. I just have my personal information but at the end of the day, we weren’t good enough for the weekend. That is pretty obvious.
Q: The tactics of the second pit stop were obviously vital to your second place.
Michael Schumacher: Yeah, we would have loved to do that at the first pit stop already, but it didn’t work out. I think there was even a bit of traffic involved. I’m not sure what happened at the very first pit stop, but if I remember correctly, the other two guys were on new tyres, I was on older tyres, which also made it a little bit more difficult for me to be right on Kimi’s tail, whereas at the second pit stop I was very close to him and then had a quick lap on new tyres and got him. But after spending forty laps or more behind him, there’s no opportunity left.
Q: How worrying is the Renault pace given that we’re going to two flyaway races in succession?
Michael Schumacher: There’s nothing new or a surprise. We have seen that they are strong all year long. We have been strong all year long with a couple of hiccups in some of the races and that’s the difference. So we’ll have to work on that to get even more out of our car and to have two cars up front and that is our target and our aim. We will work on this. I’ve heard some people saying that this is a crucial race but for me it’s not crucial at all. There are ten races to go, plenty of opportunities. We believe in ourselves and we will do a lot of hard work to get going and to take as many points as we can to be up front at the end of the year, as much as they will keep working for the opposite. It’s very natural, but there’s no way we are resigning at all.
Q: Kimi, obviously frustrated to have lost second place.
Kimi Raikkonen: Err, yeah, but we were just not quick enough and there’s nothing that I could have done. I went as quickly as I could but with Michael on new tyres there was no way that I could have kept him behind any more. We tried, but it wasn’t enough.
Q: And you were really having a go at Fernando in those early stages.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, but as I said, they were quick on the back straight and I got a very good exit in the last corner before the straight but I just couldn’t get a tow and we were just not quick enough so it made it impossible to overtake him.
Q: Was it an aerodynamic thing when you say slow in a straight line?
Kimi Raikkonen: I don’t know if we’re running more downforce. Maybe we are, because we need to get more grip in the corners or maybe there is a slight difference in engines but I think it’s the only way we can manage to go quicker around the lap so that’s what we chose to do and I still think it’s the best result we could have had today. The car was pretty OK, it was a bit difficult to drive when you pushed the whole way through the race but that’s how the racing is.
Q: Fernando, it looked easy out there. What made it so easy for you?
Fernando Alonso: I think it’s true in the race we work hard in every race, every weekend and it’s going well so far. I don’t know. Every race is a big challenge for us to stay competitive and working what we need to with the car. We need to keep developing, and, as I said in the press conference, we need to keep winning races to defend our position and, you know, to do a good job, as professional as we can all the time, so to keep ahead of the other teams, and I think this is a result of the victory. We are all focused, with all the people working in the same direction with no mistakes, and this is what we’re aiming (for).
Q: Michael, you spent the early part of the race behind Kimi. Was it just that you wanted to keep a certain distance and how much were you advantaged when you got ahead of him?
Michael Schumacher: I guess you could see once I was in front of him what was the difference between him and me after that. To answer your question correctly, the reason to stay a second behind him is that when you get closer you just start sliding around because this is a very high-speed circuit, aerodynamics are very important and there is unfortunately no way to try and stick close because of the track.
Q: Kimi, Once Michael passed you, you dropped back from him a bit. Were you pushing hard still, or did you accept that Michael had passed you and not go full speed anymore?
Kimi Raikkonen: We were still going as quick as we could because Fisichella in the second Renault had still not stopped and so we didn’t really know where they were going to end up and we saw that they were very close to us and in the race it is important to us to have to go as quickly as we can because otherwise we might lose places, so I was going as fast as I could.
Q: Fernando, Michael has a record of 19 successive podium finishes. You have now 14. Do you think that you can break the record?
Fernando Alonso: To be honest, we will try to finish on the podium in all of the races so far, but maybe, I don’t know about the record but it’s not very important. To finish in front for the championships at the end of the season, then for sure if I keep moving in that direction of the top three then it puts us in a good position to defend the championship and I hope to finish a lot more times on the podium this year.
Q: Michael, on the fourth lap you had a battle with Kimi going into the chicane. How close was that. It looked like it was wheel to wheel?
Michael Schumacher: Yes, it was. We didn’t touch but I guess there wasn’t a piece of paper’s space left. It was close but it was okay.
Q: Fernando, that win was pretty easy. Was it your easiest win of the season?
Fernando Alonso: I don’t know. Really, in Australia I had a little bit of a space, here, it was necessary to keep pushing all the race because we never know what was going to happen with tyres — raining-wise — Anything can happen in one of the pit-stops so it was worth having a little gap not to come into the pits too close. You never know what’s gonna happen with Michael, He overtook Kimi at the second stop and he was on the pace with me in the Ferrari and so he had no chance to catch up and so I try to push for every lap of the race, but it’s with the conditions we had here — very windy in the high-speed corners.
Q: Fernando, how would you feel to have Lewis Hamilton as a team-mate next year?
Fernando Alonso: Don’t ask me that. I try to win this year and next year we will have time enough to discuss about my team-mate. At the end of the day it’s not very important to me.
Q: All three of you look very sad — like you lost your parents this morning. Was it a very difficult race?
Fernando Alonso: My parents are still at home, I hope. For me, it was okay. I think I was a little more tired in Monaco because it was a stressful race with Kimi fighting a lot. Today I’m happy. It’s my way of expressing my happiness.
Michael Schumacher: It was probably a lonely race for Fernando, there was a bit of action between me and Kimi, but it wasn’t that exciting. There’s no reason to jump around and be happy. In this season there’s still a long way to go and everybody’s got to try and focus on what happens next rather than feeling joy too much.
Q: As you said, it was not an exciting race, so, to all of you, how exciting is it to race to win when you cannot even overtake — the overtaking is just in the pit-stops. Is it fun to race like that?
Michael Schumacher: It’s part of the game. I think the ideal world doesn’t exist. You always can improve things absolutely, but that’s the way it is and that’s the way it has been for so many years.
Fernando Alonso: I believe if you are quick, then you will overtake the guy in front, as Michael did today — not in the circuit but in the pit-stops. Formula One is not just about a fast car. It’s about a strategy and a combination of many things and for this it is so popular because it’s quite interesting on the track in what goes on.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, For sure everybody would like to have more overtaking, but, ever since I’ve been in Formula One it’s been like this so it’s not only for me, it’s for everyone in Formula One, so in some races you have more, and some traces on high-speed circuits you just have it where people overtake on the last pit-stops. It’s this kind of thing sometimes.
Q: Kimi, when you finished fifth in Barcelona, you said that was the maximum from the car. Now that you’ve finished third, is that more than the maximum.
Kimi Raikkonen: I think the car has maybe improved a bit from Barcelona in a bit and that is good because we struggled a bit in Barcelona, so hard to say how much improvement we’ve had. We are still too slow to try to fight for wins in the races. I think Monaco was a special place where we could challenge for a win but here it’s back to reality.
Q: Fernando, what was the significance of your stance when you finished the race? It looked like you were firing an arrow or a catapult.
Fernando Alonso: Yes, it was an arrow.
Q: No specific reason?
Fernando Alonso: No
-fia-
Fernando Alonso Wins British Grand Prix 2006
Podium: race winner Fernando Alonso celebrates
F1 > British GP, 2006-06-11 (Silverstone): Sunday race
Alonso victorious at British GP for first time
Racing series
F1
Date
2006-06-11
By Nikki Reynolds – Motorsport.com
Renault’s reigning world champion Fernando Alonso claimed victory in the British Grand Prix, his first win at Silverstone, with another faultless drive from pole to the chequered flag. Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher put in a super-fast lap after his second pit stop to beat McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen to second and the Finn had to settle for third.
Fernando Alonso. Photo by xpb.cc.
It was another hot and sunny day for the race, with the track temperature around 40 degrees at the start. It was a clean getaway in formation for the first five, pole man Alonso leading Raikkonen and Michael followed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella. Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber flew off the line to move up to sixth from ninth.
Juan Pablo Montoya’s McLaren got a hefty bump from someone early on but he seemed to escape unscathed, and behind him there was trouble. Ralf Schumacher had a poor start from seventh and dropped back, while Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed had a good start from 15th and the two clashed through Maggots and Becketts.
Speed made contact with the Toyota and Ralf was forced wide then veered back across the track, into the path of Mark Webber’s Williams. The two cars collided, Ralf’s Toyota sustaining some damage and both went off track and retired. Speed went into the pits but evidently was also too damaged to continue.
“We had a bad start and lost too many places and got into a mess,” Ralf commented. “I didn’t see anything; I had cars all over me.” The stewards are investigating the situation — it did appear that Speed was the one who initiated the accident, but the young American shrugged it off as a racing incident.
Scott Speed. Photo by xpb.cc.
“I had an awesome start and tried to go round the outside of Ralf at Maggots and Becketts,” Speed explained. “It was working, I was alongside him but I don’t think he saw me. I was just one of those things, nobody was really to blame.”
There was quite a bit of debris on the track from the Toyota and the safety car was deployed for a couple of laps while it was cleared. At the restart Alonso really backed the pack up and made a good getaway. Montoya got past the Honda of Rubens Barrichello for seventh and the top three were glued together at the front.
Michael attacked Raikkonen and they went side by side with a little pushing and shoving but Raikkonen held the Ferrari off. Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg’s Williams had climbed to ninth and back-starter Jarno Trulli had got his Toyota up to 13th. BMW Sauber’s Jacques Villeneuve and Red Bull’s David Coulthard held station in 10th and 11th.
Montoya was closing on Heidfeld and Honda’s Jenson Button, who started 19th, was also on the move, up the field to dispatch Toro Rosso’s Tonio Liuzzi for 12th at Stowe. But it was a short lived charge for Button as his Honda abruptly spouted flames at the back, caused by an engine oil leak, and he went off into the gravel to retire.
Jenson Button. Photo by xpb.cc.
“It was a massive blow up, and a massive blow as well,” he said. I started 19th and was up to 12th and things were looking pretty sweet. I think I could have got past DC (Coulthard) in the next couple of laps. The car was working pretty well. Its a shame for the British fans and particularly myself because I think we were in for a good race.”
There was no change for a while in the top 10 order, with Alonso gradually pulling away from Raikkonen at the front and reeling off fastest laps on his way. Trulli was the first to pit, around lap 17 which was quite early as it was thought he would be heavily fuelled after starting at the back. Michael was next in, also quite early.
Everyone else peeled through the pits in fairly quick succession, Raikkonen and Massa next then Barrichello and Montoya. Fisichella managed to get ahead of Massa after his stop and Alonso rejoined in the lead after his. Montoya’s McLaren had some damage to the side pod from his early bump but it didn’t appear to be hugely affecting him.
The top eight order was then Alonso, Raikkonen, Michael, Fisichella, Massa, Montoya, Heidfeld and Rosberg. Heidfeld had some kind of problem in his stop which lost him time, otherwise he probably would have been higher up. Alonso was 12 seconds clear of Raikkonen, who had Michael homing in behind.
Michael Schumacher. Photo by xpb.cc.
Villeneuve and Barrichello made up the top ten, then came Trulli, Coulthard, Klien, Liuzzi, the MF1s of Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro and the Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny. The race had settled into a fairly static state of affairs and Michael was first to duck in for the second round of pit stops.
Raikkonen was in next and Michael put in an absolutely storming lap to beat the McLaren to the first corner as Raikkonen exited the pits. Alonso made another clean stop and rejoined ahead of Massa, so Ferrari couldn’t make use of the Brazilian in any tactical way.
Michael just wasn’t close enough to think about mounting a challenge on the Renault for the remainder of the race. In the final laps Fisichella was homing in on Raikkonen but despite the team’s encouragement on the radio to get revenge for Suzuka, the Italian couldn’t find a way past.
Alonso crossed the line 13 seconds ahead of Michael to claim his first British GP win. It was a deserved victory as the Spaniard didn’t put a foot wrong the whole race. It’s looking harder and harder to imagine anyone being able to wrest the title from Alonso’s grasp — although there’s still a long way to go.
Podium: Race winner Fernando Alonso, second place, Michael Schumacher, third place, Kimi Raikkonen. Photo by xpb.cc.
“The race was really competitive, and tough,” said the winner. “We had a set-up on the car that meant it was quite understeery in the first part of the stint, but just got better and better and I could build a lead as the fuel loads came down — although I had a little bit of graining in the second stint that slowed my pace. It was windy out there too, like all weekend, so that made things a little bit unpredictable, and we are not used to this heat in Silverstone.”
“So it was never an easy win, but this shows we are working really hard. There’s no secret to this fantastic season. We attack every race as a new challenge, we are concentrating all the time and there are no mistakes from the team. The best form of defence is attack — and we showed that today.”
Michael drove well enough — his lap to get ahead of Raikkonen was a stunner — but Ferrari can’t match Renault at the moment. Massa did a solid job for fifth but didn’t really play any part save to keep himself out of trouble and pick up some more points.
Michael was reasonably content with second. “Although there were no real problems with the car this weekend, we were simply not quick enough to win. We must work very hard now to come back right from the next race. But all in all, we should still be pleased with these eight points. There are still ten races to go with a hundred points to play for. Even though I am twenty three points behind Alonso, I don’t think the fight for the championship is over.”
Raikkonen was surely disappointed to lose second but conceded that McLaren doesn’t have the straight line speed. He didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did Montoya in sixth, but McLaren is not displaying the flair and competitiveness that it had last year.
However, Raikkonen believes the team is moving forward. “We were not as quick as Alonso and Schumacher and third place was the maximum possible, but I think the good news is that this weekend has shown we are moving in the right direction and are getting more and more competitive,” he commented.
“I made a good start off the line and was able to maintain my second place. However I was not fast enough on the straights to pass Alonso. After the Safety Car came back in I could close the gap a bit, but that was it really. I suffered from oversteer towards the end of the race which allowed Fisichella to close up. However I wasn’t too worried as I knew it would be almost impossible for him to actually overtake.”
Nick Heidfeld. Photo by xpb.cc.
BMW Sauber got both drivers in the points, Heidfeld seventh and Villeneuve eighth. A good effort from the team, although Heidfeld may well have been a place higher if not for his overly long pit stop. Rosberg was ninth and Barrichello rounded off the top 10. Behind them it was Trulli and Coulthard, followed by Liuzzi, Klien, Albers, Monteiro, Sato and Montagny.
Silverstone was not exactly a thriller of a race; after the early incident and safety car period it settled into a rhythm with little in the way action, which was disappointing. Having Alonso, Raikkonen and Michael at the front of the grid had raised expectations for a good battle but it just didn’t happen.
However, F1 next heads to Montreal and Indianapolis, two races that have been known to produce all sorts of peculiar incidents and unexpected results. Final top eight classification: Alonso, M. Schumacher, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Massa, Montoya, Heidfeld, Villeneuve.
Photos for British GP
