The Grand Prix of China 2006 - Shanghai - The wet and dry Shanghai F1,Formule 1, construct, okruhy, závody, grand prix | Constructors F1 Constructors F1

The Grand Prix of China 2006 - Shanghai - The wet and dry Shanghai

L.Pecháček | 1.10.06 | Komentáře - L.Pecháček 2006

F1 comments L.Pecháček

There were two opposite sides of the GP of China. It was dry on Friday, wet on Saturday and Sunday. The end of the Sunday race was dry again. The two sides were like a day and night. However, there was a common feature in both parts. On Friday and on Saturday, faster of both candidates for the title was M. Schumacher. Only the times were very different. Whereas Wurz with Williams reached the best time 1:35.539 on Friday, Schumacher wasn't faster than 1:40.193 on Saturday's wet circuit. And when the tanks got full of fuel for the race, the best time moved further to 1:44.360. It was enough for Alonso's pole position though. His teammate Fisichella qualified to the first row next to him. In the second row there were Hondas, Barrichello and Button, Räikkönen was the fifth, M.Schumacher not better than the sixth almost 1.5s behind Alonso. The other positions were for de la Rosa and Heidfeld, Kubica and the Dutch Doornbos, who substituted for Klien in Red Bull. Massa reached no better than the 13th time, but as his team had to change the engine on Friday, he shifted 10 places backwards. The qualification was a disappointment for Williams (Webber 14th, Rosberg 15th) and mainly for Toyota (R.Schumacher 16th, Trulli 17th). The special penalization went to Albers this time. For ignoring the marshals' instructions in the race, his qualification times were deleted and he went back behind Massa. M.Schumacher was the only Bridgestone pilot among the first 13 cars. And because it was raining also on Sunday, the cards were dealt best for Alonso. All pilots decided to start the race with wet tires. Alonso started unthreatened, Fisichella watching his back, Räikkönen soon got close to them, so there were the numbers 1,2,3 in the front. There were both Hondas behind in their new colors - Button and Barrichello. M.Schumacher stuck to the 6th position. Räikkönen passed Fisichella even before the first pit stop but at that moment Alonso already cherished the 20s advantage. The pit stops mixed the standings a little. M.Schumacher made his way to the third place, whereas Räikkönen's car gave up again and he retired. The standings Alonso, Fisichella, M.Schumacher still looked good for Renault. However the second set of Alonso's tires was much worse than the first one. Fernando obviously controlled the car at the very edge of leaving the track and to avoid visiting the safety areas he had to slow down by 3 seconds per lap! Therefore he had Fisichella and Schumacher behind his rear in no time. He resisted for several laps, mainly thanks to Fisichella, but that couldn't have lasted long. In the lap 30, Fisichella took the lead and than the helpless Alonso had to give way also to Michael. And then, as soon as M.Schumacher put on dry tires he became the king of the circuit. He passed Fisichella increasing his advantage lap after lap. But neither Alonso gave up. His mechanics made a mistake during the second pit stop, prolonging it to 20s, but afterwards, with dry tires, he made one record lap after another. He got to the second position behind M.Schumacher, but his then 12s advantage was too much for him. M.Schumacher drove the end of the GP in steady safe pace and won without problems. The fight for the World Champion is equaled now. Schumacher and Alonso both have 116 points (M.Schumacher 7 victories, Alonso 6). Renault returned to the first place in the Constructors Championship, Ferrari is in the second place with one point less.

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