2006 Spanish GP

The Circuit di Catalunya is a favourite amongst the team for preseason testing, with its combination of mild weather and circuit layout. This is a track that tests every aspect of a grand prix car. The various fast corners test the aerodynamics, the long straights puts a strain on the engines and the cheese grater surface puts a real test on tyres. Its a circuit that sorts out all the cars.

Once again in free practise it was a close call between the top two teams scruffing it out for the championship. In qualifying the Renaults were quite some ways in front. Again the Renaults as they did at the Nurburgring last week would seem to be starting the race on a smaller fuel load than the longer running Ferraris. The general consensus was this was going to be a close race between the teams but many expected the Ferraris to have that slight edge.

In a circuit where its notoriously difficult to overtake, the Ferrari straight line speed gave much concern to the entire paddock over the weekend. Filipe Massa and Michael Schumacher had an enormous speeds on the main straight. Whilst a lap is determined more by the average speed on the circuit and especially round the corners, nevertheless if the going got close, one could have expected the Ferraris to be nicely slipstreaming the Renaults on straight and narrow. It was something to watch out for.

With a lockout of the front row, you could only ever expect the two Renaults to be leading to in the first turn. And so it turned out. Fisichella in fact got a fantastic start and was side by side with Alonso on the outside of turn 1. The Spaniard was not to be deined and defended the lead and proceeded to begin a relentless onslaught in this the first stint.

Kimi Raikkonen made the best start of all from ninth on the grid. The Finn squeezed neatly past the two Toyotas ahead of him and in the process passing Jenson Button as well. He then proceeded to neatly tuck on the outside of Rubens Barrichello who himself had made quite a good getaway. Going into turn 1, Kimi had all but pushed himself into the sidepods of Filipe Massa. Brilliant and perfect for the McLaren driver whom everyone expected to have run quite heavily.

As mentioned previously, Barcelona sorts out all the cars. There is nowhere to hide on this circuit. If a car is faster, it will scamper away. Slower cars can do very little about it. The race panned out in that manner. The superiority of the Renaults and Ferraris over the rest of the field was undeniable. And it seems the superiority of both these teams' leading drivers over their teammates was also without a doubt.

Fernando Alonso probably won the race on this first stint. From the get go the Spaniard set fastest lap after fastest lap, pulling inexorably away from teammate Giancarlo Fisichella who held Michael Schumacher's Ferrari in station a second behind. By lap 10, Fernando had pulled out a 7.2 second gap over Giancarlo and lapping around 1m 17.2s. The trailing Giancarlo could only manage 1m 17.8 at best. The two Ferraris were close together and keeping a close watch on the second Renault but couldn't do very much despite their enormous speeds on the straights.

By this time, Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren was already 17.4 seconds behind the leader with the two Hondas of Barrichello and Button trailing him and about 21 seconds behind Alonso. It was going to be a very long afternoon for those not driving Renaults and Ferraris. Barrichello at this stage was reported to be holding up his teammate but given the sporting regulations prohibiting team orders, the Honda teams were having trouble telling the Brazilian to move aside.

Every odd lap and Fernando Alonso would be setting the timing screens purple with yet another fastest lap, the first man to go below the 1m 17 mark. The Renault strategy was obviously to run light and open up a big gap before pitting. They failed at the Nurburgring but this weekend it was working beautifully.

Such was Ferraris worry about the Alonso's Renault, they even tried to play their famous mind games by sending the pitcrew into the pitbox trying to trick the Renaults into stopping early. It failed miserably for the Renaults was only ever going to pit as scheduled. The Ferrari crew turn tailed and went back in. Nice try, Ross but better luck next time.

Prior to his first pitstop, Fernando set another fastest lap doing 1m 16.828s and was still setting fastest sector times on his in lap. Giancarlo Fisichella, came in the very next lap.

Now the two Ferraris were out in front and the question was how long would the Ferraris be able to last before diving in. Michael Schumacher duly obliging by setting his personal best of 1m 17.395s on Alonso's pit lap. But if one expected him to put the hammer down for the next five or six laps, it never came. The Ferrari simply unable to match Fernando Alonso's ultimate pace. In the meantime, Filipe Massa dived into the pits on lap 20.

Michael Schumacher, try as he might to make up the gap with a few personal best lap times simply could not manage it. Fernando Alonso behind him was lapping very quickly in the 1m 17s despite being heavier after his pitstop. It was working very nicely. On lap 23, Michael finally makes his stop. Before Giancarlo's pitstop, Michael was close behind and the race was on to get him out in front of the Roman. This he did and it was now game on between the Ferrari and Renault out front.

Straight after his pitstop, Michael, like Fernando in the lead a good pace in the 1m 17s and by now was dropping Giancarlo Fisichella behind him. Fisichella made a terrible mistake in fact on lap in turn 3 running into the gravel. Thankfully he escaped and retained his third place but lost 6 seconds to Michael in the process and putting himself in the clutches of the trailing Filipe Massa.

In this seconds stint, both the second drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Filipe Massa were being dropped quite quickly by their respective teammates. In the meantime, Michael Schumacher was maintaining a 10 second gap to Alonso, the pair of the lapping withint tenths of one another.

And so this race went, with very few things happening elsewhere. Perhaps the only moment of note aside from Giancarlo driving in the kitty litter was the scrap between the two Toyotas. Ralf Schumacher made a very ill judged attempt to pass Jarno Trulli into turn 1. The German clipped his wing against the Italian on lap 35. Ralf was simply too far off the Italian and locked up his brakes going into the corner just as Trulli was clipping the apex. Ralf retired soon after.

Lap 37, and now after a dozen laps of pegging Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso puts the hammer down once more dropping into the low 1m 17s and high 1m 16s before pitting in on lap 40. And in a repeat of the first round of stops, Michael Schumacher attempts to respond. The German dropping into the 1m 16s himself but yet again unable to match the Renault's ultimate pace.

Such was Fernando's superiority over teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, the Spaniard comes out of the pits in third right behind his teammate and very crucially ahead of Filipe Massa. When Giancarlo Fisichella went into the pits on the very next lap, Alonso looked assured of at least second.

But could Michael respond and still win the race? The answer was a definite no. In order to win, Michael had to be a second and a half faster than Alonso but in truth the Spaniard was again nicely pegging his lap times, despite carrying an extra 8 laps worth of fuel. As Michael himself said during the press conference, his strategy could have worked but it all depended on having a quick enough car. But Barcelona belongs to Alonso and Renault. Michael Schumacher had only a 9 second lead over Alonso before his second stop. There was no way he would win today.

After the second round of stops it was Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and Filipe Massa in the lead. The Brazilian was perhaps unlucky not to catch Giancarlo in the pits despite putting in the race fastest lap before his stop. Given he had greater ultimate pace than Michael today, it was surprising that he was 16 seconds behind the German after the stops.

Its difficult to overtake on this circuit and anyone caught in traffic definitely suffered. Fernando Alonso in fact getting into a tangle with both the Midlands. First it was Christian Albers before the pitstop and then Tiago Monteiro incurring his wrath after that. One wonders how Tiago managed to win rookie of the year last year. He has a bad habit of getting in the way of the leaders on numerous occassions last year and today, showing a lack of competence and awareness. He, like his team Midland F1 are simply wasting everyone's time in Formula 1. It would be better to hand over those Toyota engines to Williams for the Grove team and their drivers would definitely make better use of it.

Such was the pace of Fernando Alonso today, that he lapped everyone up to sixth place Jenson Button. Perhaps its a measure of just how much everyone else has to do before they can start challenging him for wins. The only person in the game is really Michael Schumacher who looked very disgruntled in the post race interview in contrast to his big smiles last week. He finished 18 seconds behind Alonso. Its also very telling that Giancarlo Fisichella started on the front row but finished 23 seconds behind Alonso at the end. Filipe Massa finished a further 6 seconds behind.

Fernando also needs to note that Kimi Raikkonen was nearly a minute behind him at the chequered flag. Given that Renault have now committed to Formula 1 till 2012, perhaps his decision to move to McLaren now seems ill timed. The McLaren team is in real trouble as witnessed by their very distant fifth place. Juan Pablo Montoya didn't even finish after spinning out and getting beached on the kerbs.

It certainly looks to be an interesting summer ahead. The Renaults seem quicker on the faster circuits whereas the Ferraris look to have an advantage on the slower circuits having lots of tight turns and hairpins. A pity then that Spa is not on the calendar this year. But today, Fernando wins in front of his home crowd, a first for a Spaniard in grand prix racing.


Written by Eddie Azman, Pitstop Editorial Team

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