2006 European Grand Prix
2006 European Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 5 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship
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![]() Nürburgring | |||||
Race details | |||||
Date | 7 May 2006 | ||||
Official name | 2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe | ||||
Location | Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany | ||||
Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
Course length | 5.148 km (3.2 miles) | ||||
Distance | 60 laps, 308.88 km (192 miles) | ||||
Weather | Sunny, 20°C[1] | ||||
Pole position | |||||
Driver | Renault | ||||
Time | 1:29.816 | ||||
Fastest lap | |||||
Driver |
![]() | Ferrari | |||
Time | 1:32.099 on lap 39 | ||||
Podium | |||||
First | Ferrari | ||||
Second | Renault | ||||
Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders |
The 2006 European Grand Prix (formally the 2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe)[2] was a Formula One motor race held at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on 7 May 2006. The 60-lap race was the fifth round of the 2006 Formula One season. It was won by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher who took his second victory of the season. Polesitter Fernando Alonso finished in second position for the Renault team, whilst the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa achieved his first podium finish of the season with third place.
Franck Montagny made his Formula One début, becoming the first French F1 driver since Olivier Panis at the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix.
Background
[edit]The event was held at the Nürburgring for the 36th time in the circuit's history. It was the 11th edition of the European Grand Prix at this venue and the fifth round of the 2006 championship.
Championship standings before the race
[edit]Fernando Alonso had been leading the championship since the get-go and had already gathered 36 points. Michael Schumacher's thrilling victory in Imola had lifted him into second place with 21 points. Kimi Räikkönen was in third with 18 points.
Driver changes
[edit]Franck Montagny was originally scheduled to act as the third driver for Super Aguri,[3] but was promoted to a race seat[4] after team driver Yuji Ide had his FIA Super License revoked[5] for erratic driving in prior races that season. Ide was set to act as the team's third driver for this race, according to the team, until the revocation came down.[4] The license revocation meant Ide could no longer participate in Formula One.
Practice
[edit]Three free practice sessions were held.[6] The first and second session were headed by Williams's third driver Alexander Wurz, before the third and most representative session saw the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa top the timings.

Friday drivers
[edit]The bottom 6 teams in the 2005 Constructors' Championship and Super Aguri were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race:
Constructor | Nat | Driver |
---|---|---|
Williams-Cosworth | ![]() |
Alexander Wurz |
Honda | ![]() |
Anthony Davidson |
Red Bull-Ferrari | ![]() |
Robert Doornbos |
BMW Sauber | ![]() |
Robert Kubica |
MF1-Toyota | ![]() |
Adrian Sutil |
Toro Rosso-Cosworth | ![]() |
Neel Jani |
Super Aguri-Honda | none |
Qualifying
[edit]The qualifying session was affected by a red flag situation appearing during Q1 with 3½ minutes left on the timing monitors. Unfortunately, this was due to a software glitch in the timing system, and the session was quickly restarted. Jacques Villeneuve initially finished outside the top 16, but his time, set on a lap which he finished during the red flag, was reinstated. This placed him 7th in the session. Christian Klien had abandoned his lap, thinking it would not count, and he felt to have lost out through it.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Grid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | ![]() |
Renault | 1:31.138 | 1:30.336 | 1:29.816 | 1 |
2 | 5 | ![]() |
Ferrari | 1:31.235 | 1:30.013 | 1:30.028 | 2 |
3 | 6 | ![]() |
Ferrari | 1:31.921 | 1:30.732 | 1:30.407 | 3 |
4 | 11 | ![]() |
Honda | 1:31.671 | 1:30.469 | 1:30.754 | 4 |
5 | 3 | ![]() |
McLaren-Mercedes | 1:31.263 | 1:30.203 | 1:30.933 | 5 |
6 | 12 | ![]() |
Honda | 1:31.420 | 1:30.755 | 1:30.940 | 6 |
7 | 8 | ![]() |
Toyota | 1:31.809 | 1:30.733 | 1:31.419 | 7 |
8 | 4 | ![]() |
McLaren-Mercedes | 1:31.774 | 1:30.671 | 1:31.880 | 8 |
9 | 9 | ![]() |
Williams-Cosworth | 1:31.712 | 1:30.892 | 1:33.405 | 191 |
10 | 17 | ![]() |
BMW Sauber | 1:31.545 | 1:30.865 | 1:36.998 | 92 |
11 | 7 | ![]() |
Toyota | 1:31.470 | 1:30.944 | 10 | |
12 | 10 | ![]() |
Williams-Cosworth | 1:32.053 | 1:31.194 | 221 | |
13 | 2 | ![]() |
Renault | 1:31.574 | 1:31.197 | 11 | |
14 | 14 | ![]() |
Red Bull-Ferrari | 1:31.742 | 1:31.227 | 12 | |
15 | 16 | ![]() |
BMW Sauber | 1:31.457 | 1:31.422 | 13 | |
16 | 20 | ![]() |
Toro Rosso-Cosworth | 1:32.651 | 1:31.728 | 14 | |
17 | 15 | ![]() |
Red Bull-Ferrari | 1:32.901 | 15 | ||
18 | 19 | ![]() |
MF1-Toyota | 1:32.936 | 16 | ||
19 | 21 | ![]() |
Toro Rosso-Cosworth | 1:32.992 | 17 | ||
20 | 18 | ![]() |
MF1-Toyota | 1:33.658 | 18 | ||
21 | 22 | ![]() |
Super Aguri-Honda | 1:35.239 | 20 | ||
22 | 23 | ![]() |
Super Aguri-Honda | 1:46.505 | 21 | ||
Source:[7] |
- Notes
- ^1 – Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg both had their engines changed, and were both dropped ten places on the grid on Sunday. They started the race in 19th and 22nd places respectively.[8]
- ^2 – Jacques Villeneuve originally qualified 8th with a time of 1:31.542, but his fastest three laps from the third qualifying session were deleted due to blocking the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.
Race
[edit]The race was held on 7 May 2006 and was run for 60 laps.[9]
Race report
[edit]Fernando Alonso kept his lead at the start. Felipe Massa challenged his teammate for second, but Michael Schumacher held on through the first corner. Ralf Schumacher hit Vitantonio Liuzzi, who then collided with David Coulthard. Liuzzi was left stranded on track, which brought out the safety car. Coulthard recovered to do a pit stop but retired a lap later. The safety car was deployed for three laps.[1][9]
At the restart, Kimi Räikkönen passed Jenson Button for fourth but little else changed in the order. The front runners pitted on laps 17 and 18 and kept their relative positions. Alonso and Schumacher traded fastest laps until the Renault driver pitted on lap 38. The German was now in free air and pushed his Ferrari for three more laps. He rejoined the race a whopping five seconds ahead of his Spanish rival and managed to extend his advantage even further.
In the final stages, Massa and Räikkönen challenged Alonso for second place, but did not take any risks and the order was unchanged. Massa scored his first podium finish in Formula One.
Race classification
[edit]Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | ![]() |
Ferrari | 60 | 1:35:58.765 | 2 | 10 |
2 | 1 | ![]() |
Renault | 60 | +3.751 | 1 | 8 |
3 | 6 | ![]() |
Ferrari | 60 | +4.447 | 3 | 6 |
4 | 3 | ![]() |
McLaren-Mercedes | 60 | +4.879 | 5 | 5 |
5 | 11 | ![]() |
Honda | 60 | +1:12.586 | 4 | 4 |
6 | 2 | ![]() |
Renault | 60 | +1:14.116 | 11 | 3 |
7 | 10 | ![]() |
Williams-Cosworth | 60 | +1:14.565 | 22 | 2 |
8 | 17 | ![]() |
BMW Sauber | 60 | +1:29.364 | 9 | 1 |
9 | 8 | ![]() |
Toyota | 59 | +1 Lap | 7 | |
10 | 16 | ![]() |
BMW Sauber | 59 | +1 Lap | 13 | |
11 | 21 | ![]() |
Toro Rosso-Cosworth | 59 | +1 Lap | 17 | |
12 | 18 | ![]() |
MF1-Toyota | 59 | +1 Lap | 18 | |
13 | 19 | ![]() |
MF1-Toyota | 59 | +1 Lap | 16 | |
Ret | 7 | ![]() |
Toyota | 52 | Engine | 10 | |
Ret | 4 | ![]() |
McLaren-Mercedes | 52 | Engine | 8 | |
Ret | 22 | ![]() |
Super Aguri-Honda | 45 | Hydraulics | 20 | |
Ret | 23 | ![]() |
Super Aguri-Honda | 29 | Hydraulics | 21 | |
Ret | 12 | ![]() |
Honda | 28 | Engine | 6 | |
Ret | 15 | ![]() |
Red Bull-Ferrari | 28 | Transmission | 15 | |
Ret | 9 | ![]() |
Williams-Cosworth | 12 | Hydraulics | 19 | |
Ret | 14 | ![]() |
Red Bull-Ferrari | 2 | Collision damage | 12 | |
Ret | 20 | ![]() |
Toro Rosso-Cosworth | 0 | Collision damage | 14 | |
Source:[10] |
Championship standings after the race
[edit]
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "2006 European Grand Prix". pitpass.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
- ^ "Europe". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 2006-10-20. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
- ^ "Montagny joins Super Aguri as third driver for European GP". pitpass.com. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- ^ a b "Ide replaced by Montagny for Super Aguri". pitpass.com. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- ^ "Ide's Superlicence revoked". pitpass.com. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- ^ "2006 FORMULA 1™ GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE". Formula1.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
- ^ Domenjoz, Luc; et al. (February 2007). Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007. Chronosports S.A. p. 110. ISBN 978-2-84707-110-8.
- ^ "2006 FORMULA 1™ GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE". Formula1.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
- ^ a b "Europe 2006 • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
- ^ a b Domenjoz, Luc; et al. (February 2007). Formula One Yearbook 2006–2007. Chronosports S.A. p. 113. ISBN 978-2-84707-110-8.
- ^ a b "Europe 2006 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
External links
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