By Nick Sparkes
May 7 2006

For the third European Grand Prix in a row Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher was involved in a first corner incident and failed to finish laps from the end with a rare engine failure. In contrast Jarno looked to be set for his first points of the season but a lack of grip forced him out of the top eight. At the start the two Toyota’s made a slow get away with Ralf Schumacher the worst off getting boxed in by Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso and David Coulthard’s Red Bull Racing. Liuzzi and Ralf made light contact on the exit of the first corner, spinning the Toro Rosso driver into Coulthard’s Red Bull. Although all three drivers continued, Liuzzi would spin and stop on the track on his way to the pits bringing out the Safety Car whilst David Coulthard retired a few laps later. At this stage Jarno Trulli gained one place up into sixth, whilst Ralf was down in fourteenth. After the Safety Car came in Fernando Alonso who had made an excellent start from pole position lead the race with Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa in the two Ferrari’s behind in hot pursuit.

Both Toyota’s pitted very late for the first of two visits for tyres and fuel, with Jarno stopping much later than some of the other drivers who also took part in the final pole shoot out yesterday, but all this came to nothing as Jarno’s pace dropped off before his first stop dropping him back behind his recovering teammate who had made excellent progress from his first corner incident. At the second round of pit stops Jarno would drop back even more and was now out of the top ten, whilst Ralf was now leading a group of cars fighting for fifth place. With points looking likely and with the laps counting down Ralf’s engine blow-up, a rare engine failure for the Toyota team and a sad end to a hard fought race for home boy Ralf Schumacher. This and the retirement of Juan Pablo Montoya promoted Jarno back into the top ten, but at the chequared flag ninth place was no reward for the hundreds of Toyota employee’s who had come from the Factory a short drive away from the circuit to support their two drivers.

Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso continued their battle from Imola, with the pair only ever a couple of seconds apart before the final round of pit stops. With Alonso pitting first, Michael banged in the laps and when he emerged from the pit lane a few laps later, Michael was ahead and Alonso had to put up with another second place. Massa and Raikkonen closed in on the championship leader in the closing stages but it was another good day for Ferrari and Michael Schumacher, who now seem to be Alonso and Renault’s main rival for the 2006 championship.