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| French GP 13th - 16th July 2006 - Race Report |
Length:
4.411 km |
| While not providing the most exciting of races, the French Grand Prix at least gave hope that the World Championship is not going to fall easily into Fernando Alonso’s lap.
A fine drive by the Spaniard netted him a worthy second place, as the Renault team appeared to switch their lead driver on to a two stop strategy mid way through the race, but he and his car were comfortably eclipsed by the amazing Michael Schumacher. Ferrari, having monopolised the front row, took control from the start, with Michael leading away as Felipe Massa dutifully fell into line behind. It was clear after a handful of laps that the Bridgestone-tyred Maranello cars had the upper hand here, and so it proved as Schumacher delivered a copybook performance, taking in three scheduled stops, to win by ten seconds from the young pretender to the crown. Massa could do nothing about Alonso once Renault switched to two stops, and drove well to another podium spot. More points for Ralf Schumacher with a fine fourth place for Toyota should have been supplemented by team mate Jarno Trulli. The Italian was ahead of Ralf and in a promising fourth place when forced to retire with brake problems and a drop off in power. McLaren again played bridesmaid to the Renault and Ferrari camps, and also today to Toyota, as Kimi Raikkonen put in his usual feisty performance to net fifth position, with Pedro de la Rosa showing he has lost none of the verve that we saw on his last stand-in performance at Bahrain last year. Hard fought battles with both Mark Webber and Jacques Villeneuve led to a seventh place finish as the two silver cars sandwiched a lacklustre Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. The last point goes again to Nick Heidfeld, the German turning in his usual tidy and consistent performance for BMW-Sauber to finish three spots ahead of team mate Villeneuve. David Coulthard extracted the maximum fro the Red Bull RB2 for ninth place with team mate Christian Klien in 12th, while Scott Speed continues to impress with a committed run to tenth in the Toro Rosso. Tonio Liuzzi, shaded by his team mate here, finished in 13th. Williams endured another torrid afternoon as Mark Webber, who had driven well to be placed just outside the points in the early stages, suffered a de-laminated left rear tyre that launched him into a spectacular spin. He left the pits with new boots on, only for the problem to re-occur almost immediately. With Nico Rosberg suffering a similar malady a little while later in the sister car, the team admitted to being utterly baffled by the phenomenon. While Webber retired, Rosberg finished 14th, a lap behind. Equally galling was the performance of Honda who, following admission by both drivers that the cars were simply not fast enough, lost Rubens Barrichello to an engine failure early in the race and Jenson Button too sometime later. A bigger gulf between them and Japanese rivals Toyota could hardly be imagined. The final finishers were Christijan Albers, persevering with the Midland M16, and Franck Montagny who finished his home race, and reportedly the last one for Super Aguri, in 16th position. It seems as though the Ferrari revival is a genuine threat, although Renault have an improved package ready for Germany in two weeks, and now it seems as though Toyota have replaced McLaren as the team most likely to spring a surprise. |
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