Events
Coming up
Ferraris   by Serial Number
Maseratis   by Serial Number
Gallery
Mercato
Victories
Search
Art & More
Literature
Address Book
Archive
Info
 Home
Price Development
Parts and    Restoration
Culinaria
Contact
Michael Schumacher and Chris Dyer
Pirro.com

23.11.2009, 19:05:25 cet

 Previous page
 Next page
Up

Spanish GP ...

First day of practice

Barcelona, 12th May 2006


Jean Todt
"It's always the same on Friday, a day dedicated mainly to the comparison between the two types of tyre that Bridgestone has put at our disposal. From what we could see, the Japanese firm has done a good job, which should allow us to be competitive for the rest of the weekend. Even though both drivers had run here a few weeks ago, we worked on fine tuning the set-up of the car, adapting it to the current track conditions. We got a lot of interesting data which is now being studied by the engineers before making the tyre choice and deciding on settings."

Michael Schumacher
"I am very happy with the work we have done today, centred on the Bridgestone tyres and on adapting the 248 F1 to the track conditions. Compared with the last time we were here we have a few updates on the car and steps forward with the tyres. I think we can be competitive, even though we have yet to go into detail on the data. There are a lot of factors to consider. Looking at the times this morning we were quick and the good thing is that this afternoon, over a longer distance we were both quick and consistent, so the situation looks pretty good."

Felipe Massa
"This weekend has got off on the right foot. The day went very well and we worked almost exclusively on the Bridgestone tyres, obviously looking towards the race. Michael and I split the work load, using different types of tyre. Today I was not trying to do a time but just wanted to understand how the tyres performed over a long run. I am very satisfied with the 248 F1 and what we achieved today."

Ross Brawn
"It was a good day and both drivers did a good job, getting through everything on their programmes. We got a whole heap of data, also doing some quite long runs on both types of Bridgestone tyre we have here. The balance of the cars seems quite good and the engineers only made minor adjustments."

Free practice - First session
Temperatures

air

18/20 °C

track

22/28 °C


Felipe Massa

1st

1.15.796 4 laps chassis 250


Michael Schumacher

2nd

1.16.099 4 laps chassis 254


Free practice - Second session
Temperatures

air

23/24 °C

track

33/35 °C


Michael Schumacher

6th

1.17.100 21 laps chassis 254


Felipe Massa

17th

1.18.223 19 laps chassis 250


The Qualifying

Barcelona, 13th May 2006

Jean Todt
"Once again, we witnessed a very close qualifying session today. Tomorrow, we will have an all-red second row, with the two cars of our main rival ahead of us. Both our drivers did well. Tomorrow, reliability and tyre performance and Bridgestone has made a great job of that for this race. Given that overtaking is very difficult, it's clear that strategy will play a key role in deciding the outcome and tomorrow we will find out who got it right."

Michael Schumacher
"I am quite happy with third place on the grid, as we knew we might have to lose a bit in qualifying, because we based our decision about tyres more on how they would perform in the race. So, the second row is not a big problem as we know we can expect a strong race pace. Unlike at the Nurburgring, this time, I start from the clean side of the grid. As for race strategy, there are two possibilities and now we will have to make sure we pick the best one."

Felipe Massa
"It was a good qualifying. A start from the front two rows is vital and we managed to reach this target. On my final run in Q3, I came up against a bit of traffic in the final sector, but I'm happy with the way things went. I am very confident about the race in that we know we can count on getting very consistent performance from the Bridgestone tyres."

Ross Brawn
"It was a very exciting session which kept our drivers and engineers busy right to the end. I think both Michael and Felipe did an excellent job. Obviously, you always hope to be as far forward as possible on the grid, but the cars are very good and it looks as though the Bridgestone tyres should give a strong performance over a long distance. There is good reason to be optimistic about tomorrow's race."

Temperatures

air

24/26 °C

track

34/37 °C


Q1

MS

3rd 1.16.049 5 laps chassis 254

FM

11th 1.16.359 4 laps chassis 250


Q2

MS

1st 1.14.637 3 laps

FM

7th 1.15.245 3 laps


Q3

MS

3rd 1.14.970 16 laps

FM

4th 1.15.442 15 laps


The Race - There is still a long way to go


Barcelona, 14th May 2006 -

Fernando Alonso scored an emotional home victory in front of King Juan Carlos 1 in the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday, reclaiming two points he lost to Michael Schumacher at the Nurburgring as the Ferrari driver finished second to his championship rival. Giancarlo Fisichella finished third while Renault and Ferrari's clean sweep was completed by Felipe Massa in fourth place.

In front of a full house crowd of 131,200, Alonso took off into the lead from his 11th pole position and first at home, although closely challenged by teammate Fisichella as they went into the first corner. Michael and Massa maintained their grid positions, but Kimi Raikkonen shot up from ninth on the grid to fifth, overtaking Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Jarno Trulli came next, ahead of Toyota teammate Ralf Schumacher, down from sixth to ninth. BMW's Nick Heidfeld completed the top ten.

In the opening laps, Alonso eased away from Fisichella, who was constantly shadowed by Michael, with Massa close behind in fourth place. Raikkonen lost ground in fifth place, but at least opened up a reasonable margin to the Honda pair. Trulli continued to hold up Ralf Schumacher until the German's frustration resulted in the pair colliding on lap 16 to the detriment of Schumacher's nose section.

Alonso had a 10s lead when he made his first pit stop on lap 17 with teammate Fisichella coming in a lap later, and Massa a lap after that. Michael, however, waited until lap 23, a lap later than Raikkonen, to make his first pit stop and when he emerged, he was still ten seconds behind Alonso, but now in second place ahead of Fisichella. When the Italian was called on his radio in turn three on lap 26, he was so distracted that he lost control of the car and ran off the circuit, losing 5.5s and rejoining 8.2s behind Michael. Massa was now fairly close behind, but Raikkonen was a long way back.

The Hondas didn't stop until laps 24 and 25, with Button rejoining ahead of Barrichello, while Trulli pitted on lap 27 and Heidfeld having a long first stint and finally coming in on lap 29.

At half distance, lap 33, Alonso still had a 10s lead over Michael Schumacher, but the Ferrari driver was already resigned to second place, having failed to make any ground in clean air when Fisichella had pitted earlier. Michael's advantage over the Italian hovered around eight or nine seconds, but Massa struck traffic and never really managed to challenge the second Renault driver. Raikkonen was once again dropping back, his deficit being 16s at half distance, while Button was around five seconds behind the McLaren driver, holding a similar margin over teammate Barrichello.

Alonso pitted on lap 40, leaving him with a final stint of 26 laps - unless he was due to come in again. But Fisichella pitted a lap later, Massa two laps after that, while Michael and Raikkonen both pitted on lap 46.
Alonso now had a 12s advantage over Michael and that would rise to 18s as the Ferrari driver eased up in the final stages, leaving Alonso to take a fine home win. Michael came home a resigned second, but never really challenged by Fisichella although the gap came down from 13s to 5.4s in the closing stages. Massa was another 5.9s back although he had been as little as 3.5s behind. Raikkonen was a massive 27s further back, being closed on by Button in the closing stages, although the Honda driver was never really in a position to challenge. Barrichello was a lapped seventh while Heidfeld scored the final World Championship point, although Mark Webber closed up on him at the end.

The result means that both Alonso and Renault have eased away from Michael Schumacher and Ferrari respectively in the championship, but as Michael pointed out, there is still a long way to go.

Jean Todt
"We were expecting a very close race and that's what we got, although obviously we were hoping it would work out in our favour. Nevertheless, this weekend confirmed we are competitive, even if today, we have to admit our closest rivals were stronger. We had opted for a strategy that meant carrying a bit more fuel at the start than those ahead of us on the grid, but it did not work out for us. All the same, Michael and Felipe picked up thirteen points which are very valuable and consolidate our positions in both championships. Now we have to put a great deal of effort, along with our technical partners, first and foremost Bridgestone, to be even more competitive in the next few races."

Michael Schumacher
"The race result was decided in the first stint, as Fernando was able to pull out quite a gap, because I simply did not have the pace to stay with him. I was not held up by Giancarlo. After the lap times we had done earlier in the weekend, this was surprising, but we have seen before that in Barcelona, very small things can change your performance quite quickly. It seems that today, this had a negative effect on us and a positive one on Renault. Eight points is still good and I could say that while I was disappointed to have only won two points last Sunday, here I can be happy to have only lost two. There is still a long way to go and we will keep on fighting to try and win."

Felipe Massa
"The car worked well and our pace was what we expected, but today, our rivals were simply a bit quicker than us! I had some traffic in a few crucial phases of the race and that's one of the reasons I could not close on Giancarlo to try and get past him in the run of pit stops. Overall, we have picked up some important points for the championship."

Ross Brawn
"The car and the Bridgestone tyres performed well, but we need to find a bit more performance. There were moments when we got very close to our rivals, but I think Fernando had a slight edge today. In the first part of the race, when Giancarlo was ahead of our cars we knew we would be unable to stay in touch with Fernando and so we waited for the pit stop to try and get past Giancarlo, which Michael managed to do. However, in the next stint, we realised we were not quick enough to aim for victory. Now we have to work on improving the package for the forthcoming races.

Temperatures

air

26°C

track

36/37 °C


Michael Schumacher


2nd

+18.502 66 laps chassis 254


Felipe Massa

4th

+29.859 66 laps chassis 250

Barcelona, 12th - 14th May 2006

First Practice
Qualifying
The Race
Gallery

Ross Brawn
Ferrari Garage
248 F1 s/n 254 - Michael Schumacher
248 F1 s/n 250 - Felipe Massa
Spanish GP
Michael Schumacher and Chris Dyer
248 F1 s/n 254 - Michael Schumacher
248 F1 s/n 250 - Felipe Massa
King Juan Carlos of Spain & Michael Schumacher
The Start
The Start
248 F1 s/n 254 - Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher 2nd, Fernando Alonso 1st  & Giancarlo Fisichella 3rd
Barchetta 
The Classic and Sports Car Portal
Created with StudioLine Web

It's always the same on Friday