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2006 AUSTRALIAN GP-RACE REVIEW | |||
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At the end of our Malaysian Grand Prix report, we
said for you to watch the Australian Grand Prix, because the unexpected just
could happen, and boy were we right! Who would have predicted we would have seen
4 safety cars periods? Who would have expected Michael Schumacher to make a
fundamental driving error and crash off the circuit? Who would have expected Jacques
Villeneuve to score points from 19th on the grid? These are just a few of the
stories that emerged from the chaotic and enthralling 2006 Australian Grand
Prix. The start of the race was a sign of things to come, for Juan Pablo Montoya managed to spin his car coming round the final corner of the parade lap while attempting to warm up his tyres. It would seem he was swerving the car too severely, lost the back end and spun - much to the Colombian's embarrassment, and Ross Brawn's amusement. He kept the car running, but had to wait until the rest of the field had taken up their positions on the grid before he could turn his car around again and pull up at the rear of the pack. Fortunately for Montoya, Giancarlo Fisichella, starting from second on the grid, had stalled. The field led by Jenson Button's Honda, on pole after a fantastic qualifying run, pulled away from the grid to complete a second formation lap while Fisichella's car was recovered to the pit lane. Montoya took the opportunity to scythe his way through the field to reclaim his fifth place starting position. With enough incident to more than fill your average grand prix, the race finally got underway, but with yet more incident. Fernando Alonso made a typically rapid start from third on the grid, and threatened pole sitter Button into the first corner. The Spanish champion locked his brakes for a split second, and nearly hit the rear of Button's Honda, while the McLaren's starting fourth and fifth went wheel to wheel. Further back there was trouble, as Felipe Massa, starting 15th on the grid after crashing during qualifying, made contact with the rear of Christian Klien's Red Bull. The Austrian's car swerved across the front of the pack, collecting Massa and Nico Rosberg's Williams. Massa careered backwards into the wall, suffered heavy damage and was out, as too was Rosberg who suffered too much damage to the rear of his Williams. Klien was able to continue, seemingly undamaged. However, turn one was littered with debris, and so the safety car was sent out for the first time. Also on lap one, Coulthard and Trulli collided on the exit of turn six, resulting in the end of Trulli's race, although Coulthard was able to continue. The race restarted on lap four, and while attempting to warm his tyres up, Jenson Button ran slightly wide coming onto the pit straight, and was a sitting duck for Alonso's Renault, who took the lead into the first corner, while Kimi Raikkonen was also nipping at the Honda's heels. One lap later, and Christian Klien suffered a nasty looking accident approaching turn nine. He veered off the track straight into the concrete wall next to the track, before smashing a polystyrene distance marker and running into the tyre wall. Was the first corner contact to blame for the incident, or did he simply lose it under the bumps? We'll let Christian explain: "There was a safety car period at the beginning of the race and it very difficult to warm up my tyres. I struggled a lot with that, it made it really tricky to drive the car. I touched the brakes, the rear locked or something broke, I'm not sure, and I went off the track into the wall. There was nothing I could do. The crash looked worse than it was I think. It felt as if I got hit twice on the rear of my car on the first lap of the race and nearly went off on the first corner as a result, but I don't think that was related to my going off the track later on." However the debris from the accident ensured that the safety car was sent out again, reducing Alonso's four second lead back down to nothing. At the restart, Jenson Button's tyre temperature issued rose their ugly head again, as he was passed easily into turn one by Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn locked up though, and compromised his exit from turn two, allowing Button to gain a decent run on him approaching turn three. The two cars were side by side and touched wheels, but Raikkonen fought his way past, and scampered off into the distance, leaving Button to fend off Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya managed to steal third place when Button exited the pits after his first stop. The Honda driver emerged ahead of the McLaren coming down the pit straight, but a lack of tyre temperature (again), ensured that Montoya had it easy as he passed Button round the outside of turn 2. Button then lost fourth place to the charging BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, whose long first stint had enabled him to get past the Honda in the pit stops. Meanwhile Alonso had managed to build an 8 second lead before his stop on lap 20. This meant that home town hero Mark Webber was in the lead in his Williams. The Australian fans held their breath in expectation. Could their man secure a podium and send the crowd into rapture? For sure it was looking strong, and Webber went a few laps longer on his first stint, putting himself in solid contention. But to the anguish of the crowd, he was forced to pull his car off the road on lap 22. Dreams of Australian Grand Prix glory were over for another year. Meanwhile, the struggling Button was being rapidly caught up by Michael Schumacher, who after a rather anonymous first stint was beginning to pump in some serious lap times albeit rather raggedly. But Button's fears were eased when Schumacher understeered wide exiting the final corner, lost grip on the grass and slammed into the wall in an explosion of carbon fibre. Schumacher was out there and then, but with all the debris covering the track, the safety car had to make its third appearance. Kimi Raikkonen took advantage of the situation by changing his nosecone as his earlier lock up had begun to cause vibrations. Although not as severe as seen at last year's European Grand Prix, it was enough to cause minor damage to the front wing, compromising his race pace. However Juan Pablo Montoya pitted at the same time, and was forced to wait behind Raikkonen while the new nose cone was fumbled back on. The other runners also completed their final pit stops, and the chaos resulted in Nick Heidfeld moving up to second in his BMW Sauber. Montoya's wait in the pit lane meant he resumed in sixth place, with Raikkonen third. However, Alonso had a perfect situation, as the two sluggish MF1 cars were between him and second placed Heidfeld. At the restart, Alonso was already well clear as Heidfeld battled to pass the MF1's. But within seconds, the safety car was out once more after Vitantonio Liuzzi had a huge accident after turn two after being edged onto the grass by Jacques Villeneuve's BMW, who was rising through the field after an engine penalty. The Toro Rosso of Liuzzi was destroyed, and debris was scattered across the track. A sense of confusion was dropped among the drivers. Some slowed realising that another safety car period was ensuing, while other continued racing, resulting in large groups of cars circulating the circuit together. This ultimately resulted in Nick Heidfeld losing several places, and Scott Speed managed to controversially pass David Coulthard. After the restart, the next man to falter was Juan Pablo Montoya, who exited the final corner much like Schumacher, only he managed to catch the slide without slamming into the wall. However something had broken, as a small puff of blue smoke was seen and he pulled the car over towards the pit wall, and ground to a halt. Alonso was trouble free up front, and had time to have a competition with his race engineer to see who was the coolest. But that wasn't so say Raikkonen wasn't trying, for he set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap. Elsewhere on the final lap, Giancarlo Fisichella was hounding Jenson Button for fifth place, but was given a gift from the gods when Button's engine blew up coming round the final corner. The Honda engineers instructed Button to stop before the finish line so that they wouldn't concede a 10 place grid penalty at Imola-where overtaking is nearly impossible. In third place was Ralf Schumacher, who after Toyota's disappointing early season showings would not have expected to finish so high up. Similarly pleased would have been Nick Heidfeld, although he too had a shot at the podium, only for bad luck to get in his way. Even more impressive was the performance of the supposedly 'finished' Jacques Villeneuve, who took advantage of the high rate of attrition to finish and excellent sixth, despite starting from 19th on the grid. Rubens Barrichello, slower than is team mate all season was able to finish seventh although some way off the pace of both his team mate and the leaders. Scott Speed had finished eighth, but his overtaking of Coulthard after Liuzzi's accident was conducted under yellow flags, and a protest from Coulthard against the Toro Rosso driver secured the 500th point of the Scotsman's career. Speed was left fuming at his fellow Red Bull owned colleague, and made his feelings clear towards Coulthard in the stewards office, incurring a $5000 fine for swearing, on top of his 25 second race penalty. Beyond all the incident, and controversy, it was another demonstration of Fernando Alonso's excellence, as despite all the safety car periods cancelling out any lead he had built up, the Spanish champion was able to deal with them with minimal fuss. He never once looked under threat, and showed ominous pace at times, and was able to control the race at his own pace. Those who thought the season would be as four horse race may wish to revise their estimates. |
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| Coming soon to Focus F1 |
| Further updates to the Weird and Wonderful section, and an F1 dictionary! |
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Please remember to check back after every Grand Prix to read our in-depth race reports! |
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