2006 Australian GP: facts & Stats

Another weekend of incidents and surprise around the roads of Albert Park produced a similar effect on the record books.

Fernando Alonso's tenth Grand Prix victory makes him the first new driver into double-figures in the wins column since David Coulthard took his tenth win at the 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard's ninth successive podium is now tied for the second longest streak ever, behind Michael Schumacher's 19-race run that began at Indianapolis in 2001 and ended at Suzuka in 2002.

Alonso and Raikkonen have exactly the same ratio of podiums-to-starts (1 in every 2.8 races) and were totally dominant on pace in Melbourne - no other drivers got to within 0.991 seconds of Alonso and Raikkonen's best times.

While he didn't win the race, Raikkonen had the consolation of yet another fastest lap, and as at the 2005 British GP, he set it on the final lap of the race.

This takes the Finn's career tally to 17 fastest laps - one behind Coulthard for second place on the current active list, and only two behind Ayrton Senna's career total.

Lap   Alonso     Raikkonen   Gap
27    1:28.595   1:29.604    +14.263
28    1:28.306   1:29.306    +15.263
29    1:27.488   1:29.243    +17.018
30    1:27.236   1:29.737    +19.519
31    1:27.289   1:29.560    +21.790
32    1:27.732   1:29.288    +23.346
33    1:27.648   1:29.127    +24.825

Raikkonen experienced a crucial drop in pace around mid-distance, as between laps 27-33 he didn't manage a single lap below 1m29s (relative to his fastest lap of 1:26.045), while Alonso was mostly in the 1m27s.

It would have continued in this manner, but Kimi was saved by the bell when the Safety Car was deployed on lap 34 because of Michael Schumacher's accident.

This allowed McLaren to change the front wing on Raikkonen's car, after it developed a fracture in one of its footplates, most probably as a result of vibrations stemming from the flat-spot the Finn developed on his right front tyre while passing Jenson Button on lap 10.

All this gave Alonso track position as well as the ability to control the restarts, and in the final few laps he could afford to lap around 1.3 seconds slower than Raikkonen. The additional strain that the Finn exerted on his engine toward the end of the race may come back to haunt him at Imola.

Ralf Schumacher benefited from the mistakes of others to take a rare podium finish, his third in Australia.

Since the Belgian Grand Prix of 2002, the Toyota man has started 52 Grands Prix, but this was only the seventh time he's climbed the rostrum in that time-span.

Meanwhile, Jarno Trulli had a promising weekend ruined by a collision with David Coulthard - the 14th time in the Italian's F1 career that he has found himself on the sidelines before the end of the first lap.

Nick Heidfeld's pace in Malaysia was proven to be no fluke with his run to fourth place. At one point in the race he was as high as second, and might have finished on the podium but for a mistake at turn 6, which allowed Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher to pass him. He matched his last finish in Australia, when he scored his first career points back in 2001.

By leading laps 21 and 22, Mark Webber became the first Australian to lead his home Grand Prix since it became a world championship event. It was only his second time at the head of the field, having previously been there for Jaguar at the 2003 United States GP. Curiously, as happened Sunday, he retired from that race after spending the previous two laps in the lead.

The Ferrari 248 F1 of Felipe Massa is removed from the track at Melbourne © LAT

With his retirement at the opening corner, teammate Nico Rosberg has only done six laps in the last two races, combined. Given that he received a fresh engine for the Melbourne meeting, and only competed 175 kms in practice and qualifying, look for the team to try and salvage that relatively fresh engine for Imola.

As Williams come to terms with back-to-back double retirements in Sepang and Melbourne, Ferrari are also feeling the double-DNF blues. Felipe Massa's afternoon ended at the first turn for the second time in four Australian GP starts, and things went from bad to worse when Schumacher joined him at the end of lap 33.

Only one race out of the last 125 finished without a Ferrari being involved. That race, the 2003 Brazilian GP, was also the last time Michael Schumacher crashed out of a race on his own, until Sunday.

Another similarity between that race and Sunday's GP was the multiple appearances of the Safety Car, with four being the most we've seen since the record-setting five appearances in Brazil, three years ago. However, on that day, the race both started and finished behind the Safety Car.

Until a 25-second penalty dropped him down the order, Scott Speed was briefly the 302nd driver to score world championship points, and Toro Rosso become the 76th team to do so. Speed was joining some illustrious company in the One Point Club - Derek Bell and Alex Zanardi are two big names with but a solitary point to their names.

Takuma Sato's Melbourne race will provide him a lot of satisfaction from running as high as 12th place, while fending off the Honda of his replacement Rubens Barrichello for the first 22 laps. Once again he was far quicker than his teammate Yuji Ide, whose best lap was a mammoth 3.163 seconds slower than his team leader's.

At the 2005 Australian GP, the BARs of Sato and Jenson Button both avoided taking the chequered flag in order to allow a penalty-free engine change after the race. On Sunday, the same two drivers again found themselves coming up short on the final lap.

In Sato's case, a wheel problem meant he finished his day in the pits, while for Button, frustration came in the form of his engine lunching itself, and subsequent team order to stop before the line. While that meant the loss of three certain points (and the end of his 12-race points-scoring streak), the upside is that, like last year, he will leave Australia able to change his engine without penalty - something that would have been denied to him had he crossed the line.

For whatever reason, Button struggled all afternoon with his speed, most noticeably after the Safety Car periods. Starting from Honda's first pole position since the 1968 Italian GP, he lost the lead to Alonso at the first restart on lap 3, before Raikkonen jumped him after the second SC period on lap 10. Then, to rub salt into the wound, Ralf Schumacher and Juan-Pablo Montoya both passed him at the lap 38 restart.

The pace simply wasn't there for Button in this race, as demonstrated by his fastest lap, which was a tenth slower than teammate Barrichello - who spent much of his race stuck in the midfield.

The chief beneficiary of Button's last lap maladies was Fisichella, who had given the Englishman a considerable head start by stalling on the grid, relegating himself to pitlane. Beginning an afternoon on the pit road doesn't seem to affect matters in Melbourne - in 2003, Raikkonen pitted at the end of the parade lap, and only a drive-through penalty later on prevented him from winning the race.

Nick Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber © LAT

Jacques Villeneuve's day was overshadowed by another star drive from his teammate, but the Canadian did achieve a small personal triumph - Malaysia and Australia were his first back-to-back points finishes since the Japanese and Malaysian Grands Prix of 2000. Not a bad return, considering his 10-position grid penalty for changing his engine before qualifying.

Ensuring bragging rights for at least the next three weeks, the BMW factory team are currently ahead of their old partners Williams in the constructors' championship.

Down at the tail end of the field, Tiago Monteiro failed the make it to the finish for only the second time in his 22-race career, while on the flipside, Yuji Ide scored his first F1 finish, three laps down.

Alonso leaves Australia 14 points to the good in the championship battle, an even bigger gap than he had at the same stage last season. It might seem a lot, but Raikkonen himself could caution him against complacency.

After three rounds in 2003, the Finn was 16 points ahead of Michael Schumacher (who was then languishing in 8th place in the table), but the Ferrari driver beat him to the championship at the final race in Suzuka. There's everything to play for as the European leg of the season approaches.