The 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially the 2006 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain on 12 March 2006. The 57-lap race was the opening round of the 2006 Formula One season and the third running of the Bahrain Grand Prix. It was won by the World Champions, Fernando Alonso and the Renault team. Ferrari driver and polesitter Michael Schumacher began his final season in Formula One (before his return with Mercedes in ) with second position. Kimi Räikkönen completed the podium after he finished in third place with the McLaren team, despite starting in last position.

The race was the first Grand Prix for future world champion Nico Rosberg, son of World Champion Keke Rosberg, who raced with the Williams team. He set the fastest lap of the race and, at the age of 20 years and 258 days, broke the record for the youngest driver to do so, which he held until Max Verstappen scored his first fastest lap, at age 19, at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. It was also the debut race for the BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Midland F1 and Super Aguri teams, and drivers Scott Speed and Yuji Ide. This race was also the debut of the new 2.4 litre naturally aspirated V8 engine configuration in the sport which was used by 10 of the 11 teams entered into the race, and would remain in service in F1 until the end of the 2013 season.

Report Background This was the first race for the Midland, BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Honda F1 and Super Aguri teams, although only Super Aguri was a completely new team, the others all representing buyouts or rebrandings of existing teams. Along with Rosberg, Scott Speed and Yuji Ide were also making their Grand Prix débuts.

It also saw the début of the 2.4 litre (146.4 cu in) naturally-aspirated V8 engines which were used by all teams except Toro Rosso, who were still using the 3.0 litre (183 cu in) V10 engines that were used from 1995 to 2005, as the team's chassis, the STR1, was reused from the Red Bull RB1 from the 2005 season. This race notably marked the first time teams had fielded V8-powered cars, since the 1997 European Grand Prix.

Ben Edwards left BBC Radio 5 Live after 2005 and was replaced by David Croft. Meanwhile on the ITV front, Jim Rosenthal was also gone and was replaced by Steve Rider in his first race as anchor since the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix.

Friday drivers The bottom six 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 Markus Winkelhock Toro Rosso-Cosworth Neel Jani

Qualifying

The race was the first run under the new 2006 qualifying rules, in which the one-hour session is split into three 'knock out' parts. The first part eliminated Kimi Räikkönen (rear wishbone failure) and Ralf Schumacher, who was caught out by the red flag after Räikkönen's accident and failed to set a competitive time, as well as the MF1's and the two Super Aguris. The second part saw fewer surprises, with the expected runners lining up for the final top 10 part. The result was that the Ferraris swept the front row.

Race At the start of the race, Fernando Alonso moved up to second in the first lap, only for Michael Schumacher to begin to pull away. Alonso was involved in a near collision with Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa, who spun at the first corner. Massa was never a threat after this point, not helped by a delay in his pit stop to change tyres the same lap. Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella also played little part in the race due to an engine mapping problem which restricted power. He retired on the 21st lap due to hydraulic failure. A live team radio broadcast in which the team informed him that he would have to cope with the engine as well as he could led to Fisichella swearing in response; this incident resulted in future team radio broadcasts being time-delayed. To the surprise of few, Kimi Räikkönen quickly moved his way up the field, only being delayed by Jacques Villeneuve and Fisichella for a short period of time, before passing both men.

Further down the field, Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg, who was making his Grand Prix début, touched at the first corner. Both men were significantly delayed, but recovered. Heidfeld's day continued to get worse, as an incident with David Coulthard was investigated after the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished 5th in his McLaren, having never been a threat throughout the race. It was a good day for Williams on a whole, as Mark Webber finished in 6th, while Rosberg was the surprise of the race though, ending up a very respectable 7th, passing Christian Klien after catching him in the last few laps of the race, putting Klien down to a still impressive 8th. Rosberg set the fastest lap of the race, becoming the youngest driver ever to achieve this in a Grand Prix, breaking a record held by Alonso.

Honda suffered mixed fortunes throughout the race. Early on fans were treated to a fight between Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, as Button slipped down the order due to a slow getaway. Button eventually fought his way back up, twice passing Juan Pablo Montoya at the end of the straight but losing out again in pitstops. He eventually finished 4th, 0.6 seconds behind Räikkönen in 3rd. Räikkönen fought hard throughout the race, stopping only once on his way to the last podium spot. He rose 19 places in the race which is more than any driver since Fabrizio Barbazza started 25th and finished sixth in the 1993 San Marino Grand Prix.

At the second set of pit stops, Alonso was able to take advantage of staying out longer than Schumacher by coming out of the pit lane side by side with Schumacher. As they came into the first corner both cars were neck and neck, but Alonso was able to pull out in front of the former world champion. Despite coming under heavy pressure from Schumacher towards the end, the reigning champion started off the season with a well earned victory.

After a tussle with David Coulthard, Nick Heidfeld was reprimanded by stewards post-race for positioning his car in a way that forced Coulthard off the race circuit. Coulthard suffered engine failure on cool-down lap and received a 10-place grid penalty for 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 1 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:33.310 1:32.025 1:31.431 1 2 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:33.579 1:32.014 1:31.478 2 3 12 Jenson Button Honda 1:32.603 1:32.025 1:31.549 3 4 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:32.433 1:31.215 1:31.702 4 5 4 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.233 1:31.487 1:32.164 5 6 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:33.922 1:32.322 1:32.579 6 7 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:33.454 1:32.309 1:33.006 7 8 15 Christian Klien Red Bull-Ferrari 1:34.308 1:32.106 1:33.112 8 9 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:32.934 1:31.831 1:33.496 9 10 16 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:33.374 1:31.958 1:33.926 10 11 17 Jacques Villeneuve BMW Sauber 1:33.882 1:32.456 11 12 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:32.945 1:32.620 12 13 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 1:33.678 1:32.850 13 14 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:33.987 1:33.066 14 15 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1:34.439 1:33.416 15 16 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1:33.995 1:34.606 16 17 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:34.702 17 18 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:35.724 18 19 18 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:35.900 19 20 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:37.411 20 21 23 Yuji Ide Super Aguri-Honda 1:40.270 21 22 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes No time 22Source: Notes — Kimi Räikkönen suffered a right rear suspension failure during his first timed lap. The suspension failure, which was due to a manufacturing fault, red flagged the session and ended Räikkönen's qualifying session.

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 57 1:29:46.205 4 10 2 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 57 +1.246 1 8 3 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 57 +19.360 22 6 4 12 Jenson Button Honda 57 +19.992 3 5 5 4 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 57 +37.048 5 4 6 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 57 +41.932 7 3 7 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 57 +1:03.043 12 2 8 15 Christian Klien Red Bull-Ferrari 57 +1:06.771 8 1 9 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 57 +1:09.907 2 10 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari 57 +1:15.541 13 11 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth 57 +1:25.997 15 12 16 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 56 +1 Lap 10 13 21 Scott Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth 56 +1 Lap 16 14 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 56 +1 Lap 17 15 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 56 +1 Lap 6 16 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 56 +1 Lap 14 17 18 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 55 +2 Laps PL 18 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 53 +4 Laps 20 23 Yuji Ide Super Aguri-Honda 35 Engine 21 17 Jacques Villeneuve BMW Sauber 29 Engine 11 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 21 Hydraulics 9 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 0 Driveshaft 18Source: Notes — Tiago Monteiro suffered transmission failure on the way to the grid, so swapped to the T-car and started from the pitlane.

Notes First win for V8-powered car since 1994 European Grand Prix.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 10 2 Michael Schumacher 8 3 Kimi Räikkönen 6 4 Jenson Button 5 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 4Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Renault 10 2 McLaren-Mercedes 10 3 Ferrari 8 4 Honda 5 5 Williams-Cosworth 5Source:

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

References

External links

(archived)