2006 United States Grand Prix

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 2 July 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.

2006 United States Grand Prix
Race 10 of 18 in the 2006 Formula One World Championship
The Indianapolis circuit
Race details
Date	2 July 2006
Official name	2006 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.195 km (2.606 miles)
Distance	73 laps, 306.016 km (190.238 miles)
Weather	Sunny, hot
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:10.832
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:12.719 on lap 56
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
Third	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault
Lap leaders

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 tire 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. As of 2024, 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.

Friday drivers

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		Giorgio Mondini
Toro Rosso-Cosworth		Neel Jani
Super Aguri-Honda		Sakon Yamamoto

Report

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 and qualifying

Scuderia Ferrari locked out the front row on the grid.

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.

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.

Race

Juan Pablo Montoya was involved in an incident at the first corner of the 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.

Classification

Qualifying

Scott Speed qualified in 13th at his home race.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
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	1:13.506			21
20	8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:13.787			PL
21	20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	1:14.041			20
22	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	1:16.036			19
Source:

Race

Fernando Alonso in front of race winner Michael Schumacher during the race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	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	23.604	PL	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
Ret	7	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	62	Wheel bearing	8
Ret	19	Christijan Albers	MF1-Toyota	37	Transmission	14
Ret	17	Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	23	Engine	6
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	MF1-Toyota	9	Collision damage	15
Ret	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	6	Collision	18
Ret	12	Jenson Button	Honda	3	Collision damage	7
Ret	3	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	9
Ret	16	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	0	Collision	10
Ret	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	11
Ret	9	Mark Webber	Williams-Cosworth	0	Collision	12
Ret	21	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Cosworth	0	Collision	13
Ret	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Ferrari	0	Collision	16
Ret	23	Franck Montagny	Super Aguri-Honda	0	Collision	19
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

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

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos.	Constructor	Points
	1	Renault	131
	2	Ferrari	105
	3	McLaren-Mercedes	65
	4	Honda	32
	5	BMW Sauber	19
Source:

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

External links

• Detailed United States Grand Prix results