The 2006 United States Grand Prix (formally the 2006 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on July 2, 2006. It was the tenth race of the 2006 Formula One season and the 40th United States Grand Prix. The 73-lap race was won by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher after starting from pole position. Teammate Felipe Massa finished second with Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella third.

As a consequence of the race, Michael Schumacher scored his third win of the season, ending championship rival Fernando Alonso's run of four consecutive wins and reducing the 2005 World Drivers' Champion's lead in the points standings to 19 over the German. Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa made it a Ferrari one-two by finishing in second place as the Maranello-based team also reduced Renault's constructors points advantage to 26.

The race also marked the anniversary of the tyre controversy a year earlier, when 14 cars withdrew before the race began because of safety concerns about the supply of Michelin tyres provided to them – which had resulted in crashes during practice. This was also the last race for McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, after he announced that he would be leaving to race in NASCAR in 2007. , this is the last time a Colombian driver participated in a Formula One race.

This was the last race until the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix that neither McLaren was classified.

Background The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as Constructors) were Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, Toyota, Williams, Honda, Red Bull, BMW Sauber, MF1, Toro Rosso and Super Aguri.

Going into the race, Renault driver Fernando Alonso led the Drivers' Championship with 84 points, ahead of Michael Schumacher on 59 points and Kimi Räikkönen on 39 points. Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth with 37 points while Felipe Massa was fifth on 28 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Renault were leading with 121 points, Ferrari and McLaren were second and third with 87 and 65 points respectively, while Honda on 29 and BMW Sauber on 19 points contended for fourth place. Renault and Fernando Alonso had so far won the majority of the races, including victory in the preceding Canadian Grand Prix. Championship contenders Schumacher and Fisichella had each gained victories, and Räikkönen, Juan Pablo Montoya had each gained second-place finishes. Massa, Jenson Button, Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard had achieved third place podium finishes.

Practice 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 Driver Williams-Cosworth Alexander Wurz Honda Anthony Davidson Red Bull-Ferrari Robert Doornbos BMW Sauber Robert Kubica MF1-Toyota Giorgio Mondini Toro Rosso-Cosworth Neel Jani Super Aguri-Honda Sakon Yamamoto Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race – two on Friday, and one on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes; the third session, on Saturday morning, lasted for an hour.

Qualifying Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 15 minutes, and cars that finished the session 17th position or lower were eliminated from qualifying. The second part of the qualifying session lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of the qualifying session ran for 20 minutes which determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position. Cars which failed to make the final session could refuel before the race, so ran lighter in those sessions.

Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa earned Ferrari a front row lockout, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella and Rubens Barrichello. Jarno Trulli's car was still being repaired when cars were sent to parc fermé; because of that, Trulli had to start from the pit lane. Nico Rosberg was penalised for ignoring a signal during the qualification session, requiring him to get his car weighed at the FIA garage. The FIA cancelled all his qualifying times, and he started from 21st position. Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi had the engine of his car changed, and had to start from 20th position on the grid. Qualifying classification

Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 1 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:11.588 1:10.636 1:10.832 1 2 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:11.088 1:11.146 1:11.435 2 3 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:12.287 1:11.200 1:11.920 3 4 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:12.156 1:11.263 1:12.109 4 5 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:12.416 1:11.877 1:12.449 5 6 17 Jacques Villeneuve BMW Sauber 1:12.114 1:11.724 1:12.479 6 7 12 Jenson Button Honda 1:12.238 1:11.865 1:12.523 7 8 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:11.879 1:11.673 1:12.795 8 9 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:12.777 1:12.135 1:13.174 9 10 16 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:11.891 1:11.718 1:15.280 10 11 4 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 1:12.477 1:12.150 11 12 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:12.935 1:12.292 12 13 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1:13.167 1:12.792 13 14 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:12.711 1:12.854 14 15 18 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:12.627 1:12.864 15 16 15 Christian Klien Red Bull-Ferrari 1:12.773 1:12.925 16 17 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 1:13.180 17 18 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:13.496 18 19 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:13.50621 20 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:13.787PL 21 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1:14.04120 22 23 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda 1:16.036 19 Source: Notes – Nico Rosberg was retroactively excluded from the results of qualifying for ignoring an instruction from the officials. – Jarno Trulli was to start the race from the pitlane after changing his suspension outside of parc fermé conditions. – Vitantonio Liuzzi received a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Race

The race started with two big accidents at the first corner, which eliminated 7 cars. At Turn 1, Mark Webber collided with Christian Klien, who then spun around and was taken out by Franck Montagny. In Turn 2, Juan Pablo Montoya nudged his teammate Kimi Räikkönen into a spin. Montoya then clouted Jenson Button whose front right tyre got caught by BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld who was launched into a triple barrel roll; Montoya also clipped Scuderia Toro Rosso's Scott Speed in the incident. None of the drivers were injured. After that, the order stayed the same at the front, the only action being a battle at the back between David Coulthard, Nico Rosberg, and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Rosberg lost out and was the only finishing driver not to score in the race, with Liuzzi gaining Toro Rosso's first ever point. Montoya departed McLaren days after the race, announcing his move to NASCAR for the 2007 season for Chip Ganassi Racing. Michael Schumacher led home teammate Felipe Massa for a Ferrari one-two finish - the Maranello team's first of the season. This was Schumacher's fifth overall victory in the United States Grand Prix and his fourth consecutive win at this particular event. Giancarlo Fisichella came home a distant third in his Renault with his teammate and championship leader Fernando Alonso 5th behind the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

Race classification Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 73 1:34:35.199 1 10 2 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 73 +7.984 2 8 3 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 73 +16.595 3 6 4 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 73 +23.604PL 5 5 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 73 +28.410 5 4 6 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 73 +36.513 4 3 7 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 72 +1 lap 17 2 8 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth 72 +1 lap 20 1 9 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 72 +1 lap 21 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 62 Wheel bearing 8 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 37 Transmission 14 17 Jacques Villeneuve BMW Sauber 23 Engine 6 18 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 9 Collision damage 15 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 6 Collision 18 12 Jenson Button Honda 3 Collision damage 7 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 0 Collision 9 16 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 0 Collision 10 4 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 0 Collision 11 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 0 Collision 12 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 0 Collision 13 15 Christian Klien Red Bull-Ferrari 0 Collision 16 23 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda 0 Collision 19 Source: Notes – Jarno Trulli started the race from the pitlane.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 88 2 Michael Schumacher 69 1 3 Giancarlo Fisichella 43 1 4 Kimi Räikkönen 39 5 Felipe Massa 36Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Renault 131 2 Ferrari 105 3 McLaren-Mercedes 65 4 Honda 32 5 BMW Sauber 19Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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