Ferrari’s Felipe Massa clinched a famous home victory, Renault’s Fernando Alonso won a second straight driver’s title and Michael Schumacher fought back to finish fourth in his final race – the Brazilian Grand Prix – on Sunday.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa clinched a famous home victory, Renault’s Fernando Alonso won a second straight driver’s title and Michael Schumacher fought back to finish fourth in his final race – the Brazilian Grand Prix – on Sunday.
Schumacher needed to win the season-ending race at Interlagos with Alonso out of the points to secure an eighth title in his final grand prix appearance, but his Ferrari, which struggled with a fuel pressure problem in the qualifying session and started the grand prix from tenth place on the grid, suffered a puncture in early in the race.
After dropping to last position, the 37-year-old German put in a storming recovery drive to finish fourth, but he could do nothing to prevent Alonso, who paced himself to a calculated second-placed finish ahead of Jenson Button’s Honda, from defending his 2005 title.
Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella finished sixth, behind McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, and the result was enough for the team to beat Ferrari by five points and win the constructor’s championship for the second year in a row.
The Ferraris set the pace throughout the weekend and Massa, who started from pole position, thrilled his impassioned home crowd by controlling the race from the front and, in doing so, became the first Brazilian to win at Interlagos since the late Ayrton Senna in 1993.
Massa romped away into the lead in the first two laps before a heavy crash by Nico Rosberg (Williams) brought out the safety car. When the race resumed, the Brazilian stormed off into the distance, leaving future Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen in his wake.
Schumacher made a blistering start to the race, and was up to sixth position when the safety car intervened. At the end of Lap 8, the German attempted to overtake Alonso’s team-mate, Fisichella.
The seven-time champion moved ahead of the Italian’s Renault as the pair powered down the pit straight and fended off Fisichella’s attempt to re-take the position into the Senna S, but halfway through the corner, the rear of the Ferrari slid wide. Fisichella streaked past as Schumacher slowed with his left rear tyre in tatters.
The German was forced to tour slowly around the rest of the lap before stopping in the pits for a new tyre. He rejoined just ahead of his rapid team-mate Massa and although Ferrari added extra fuel to his car when the team replaced his punctured tyre, Schumacher set a series of fastest laps as he scythed through the field.
As his fuel load came down and his competitors’ pit stops brought them back towards him, Schumacher was again in sixth place on the tail of Fisichella. He harried the Italian for 10 laps before the pressure finally told – the Renault driver misjudged his braking into the first corner with nine laps to go and ran wide.
Although Raikkonen robustly defended his position at the first corner, Schumacher bravely passed Raikkonen’s McLaren with three laps to go. Because Button was more than six seconds ahead in third, Schumacher did not have enough laps to catch the Briton.
For his part, Alonso had made a cautious start to the race, holding position in fourth place behind Raikkonen and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota. However, the Spaniard upped his pace in the run up to the first pit stop (once the Italian retired with suspension failure).
Raikkonen made his stop first, at the end of lap 21, but Alonso had another five laps of fuel left in his car, and he rejoined just ahead of the McLaren. Button, who had made strong progress after starting 14th and passing Raikkonen at the end of lap 29, was close behind Alonso until the second stops, but the Spaniard again stayed out longer and easily held on to second place to the end of the race.
Raikkonen was never far behind Button, but was forced to end his McLaren career in an understated fifth place. Honda’s Rubens Barrichello was seventh ahead of the McLaren of Pedro de la Rosa, who did an unconventional one-stop race.
CARtoday.com F1 Comment: Auf wiedersehen, Schumi
Driver quotes from Interlagos ’06
Brazilian Grand Prix result:
1. F Massa (Brz) Ferrari
2. F Alonso (Spa) Renault +18,658 secs
3. J Button (GB) Honda +19,394
4. M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari +24,094
5. K Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren-Mercedes +28,503
6. G Fisichella (Ita) Renault +30.287
7. R Barrichello (Brz) Honda +40,294
8. P de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren-Mercedes +52,068
9. R Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +1:07,642
10. T Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda 1 lap
11. S Speed (US) Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1 lap
12. R Doornbos (Ned) Red Bull-Ferrari 1 lap
13. V Liuzzi (Ita) Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1 lap
14. C Albers (Ned) MF1-Toyota 1 lap
15. T Monteiro (Por) MF1-Toyota 2 laps
16. S Yamamoto (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda 2 laps
17. N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 8 laps
DNF D Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Ferrari 14 laps completed
DNF J Trulli (Ita) Toyota 10 laps
DNF R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 9 laps
DNF M Webber (Aus) Williams-Cosworth 1 lap
DNF N Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Cosworth 1 lap
Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher, 1:12.162, lap 70.
