2006 Bahrain GP: facts & Stats

To the armchair fan, this weekend's race belonged to Fernando Alonso, who will head to Sepang in the championship lead that he has held continuously since winning there 12 months ago.

However, when historians look back on the event in years to come, the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix will no doubt be remembered for the remarkable debut of Nico Rosberg, who recovered from a first-corner skirmish with Nick Heidfeld to become the 54th man in history to score points on a maiden appearance.

One for the history books

Joining a roll of honour that includes the likes of Jackie Stewart and Alain Prost would be reason alone to be proud, but Rosberg's biggest historical achievement was setting the fastest lap of the race, making him the youngest man ever to do so.

Bruce McLaren was a previous holder of the record, setting the quickest lap of the race at Aintree in 1959 - albeit a joint-fastest with Stirling Moss. Aged 21 years and 321 days, McLaren's record stood unchallenged for 44 years, until Fernando Alonso tied it at the 2003 Canadian Grand Prix.

As if to prove this was no fluke, of the 50 fastest laps set by all the drivers during the race, Rosberg set no fewer than nineteen of them, including six of the best 10. In comparison, fourth-place finisher Jenson Button, race winner Alonso and second-place finisher Michael Schumacher, had each just six laps in the top 50. Rosberg was also the first man since Jacques Villeneuve at the 1996 Australian Grand Prix to set the fastest lap in his first Formula One race.

It was a great start for Williams, who did not record a fastest lap throughout 2005, and Mark Webber's fourth-fastest time underlines that the Grove-based outfit could become a force to be reckoned with in this year's championship battle.

This will send out an important psychological message for the Bridgestone users this year. Prior to Sunday, you had to go back five years to find a race in which a Bridgestone-shod car other than a Ferrari took a fastest lap. That honour fell to Mika Hakkinen at the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix, in McLaren's last season on the Japanese rubber.

Rosberg was 20 years 228 days old on Sunday in Sakhir, which, by dint of his seventh place, also made him the third-youngest points-scorer in history. Only Jenson Button (Brazil 2000) and Ricardo Rodriguez (Belgium 1962) were younger than Nico when they first troubled the scorers - although it is worth mentioning that seventh place has only been a points-paying position since 2003.

These statistics almost distract from the quality of the drive itself, which showed the sort of tenacity that Frank Williams and Patrick Head seem to particularly enjoy.

After making his final stop, on lap 43, Rosberg emerged in ninth place, 7.6 seconds behind Red Bull's David Coulthard and 13.4 adrift of Coulthard's teammate Christian Klien.

Within six laps the German rookie had disposed of the Scot, and then passed the Austrian on the penultimate lap. Such was Rosberg's pace that in those last 14 laps, he actually closed on race-leader Fernando Alonso by 2.6 seconds, and we know Alonso wasn't exactly taking it easy with Schumacher on his tail.

Most of the time Rosberg lost was in the collision with Heidfeld, the subsequent pitstop, and being stuck behind Super Aguri's Yuji Ide.

Nico Rosberg overtakes David Coulthard © LAT

After clearing Ide on lap eight, Rosberg's race time for the remaining 49 laps was faster than the race leaders, despite coming through the field. With a better qualifying performance, the young Williams driver could have had a legitimate shot at winning - certainly at a podium finish - but he failed to make the final period on Saturday's qualifying and lined up 12th, alongside Jacques Villeneuve, another of the second-generation brigade.

It had been 24 years since the names Villeneuve and Rosberg were alongside each other on the grid, when their fathers shared row four of the 1982 Long Beach Grand Prix.

A question of speed

As the new method of qualifying still involves the use of race fuel in the final period, it wasn't immediately obvious who had the quickest car over one lap.

Fernando Alonso carried four laps more fuel than pole-sitter Michael Schumacher, while Juan Pablo Montoya and Mark Webber were eight laps heavier than the Ferrari, as illustrated by the timing of their first pitstop. This explained why Schumacher was the fastest man on track for 11 of the first 14 laps of the race.

Theoretical qualifying times

However, when adding up the fastest individual sector times in qualifying, a clearer picture emerges.

Hypothetically, Alonso would be on pole position with a time of 1:31.176. Michael Schumacher would follow in second, on 1:31.362, and Button third, on a 1:31.422. Taking Raikkonen out of the equation (as he did not complete a timed lap), Alonso, Schumacher and Button have indeed finished in that order, 1-2-3, on race day.

At the time of Raikkonen's suspension failure, the Finn had just set the fastest first sector of all, and it was still good enough for 8th quickest by the end of the session, despite most of the best sector times being set in period 2. This may become the norm over this season, as the pressure to make it through to the final top-ten run-off means that teams have to resort to the "old-style" low-fuel qualifying runs.

Stats from the back

Alonso leaves Bahrain having prevented Michael Schumacher from taking a win in the season-opener. On every previous occasion the German has achieved this (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004), he has taken the Drivers' Championship. For Schumacher, this was only the second of his most recent 14 pole positions that he failed to convert into a victory, stretching back to Imola 2003.

Ayrton Senna leads Alain Prost at the start of the 1989 US GP in Phoenix © LAT

Aged 37 years and 68 days, Schumacher became the oldest pole-sitter since Gerhard Berger was first on the grid at Hockenheim, nine years ago, but this was lost in the background as the Ferrari driver's 65th pole position tied Ayrton Senna's all-time record.

Senna first claimed the record at the 1989 United States GP in Phoenix, when he overhauled Jim Clark's 33 career poles. He achieved his 65 poles in 161 starts, whereas it has taken Schumacher 231. Moreover, all of Senna's poles came within a nine-year period, compared to twelve years for Schumacher.

Over at McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen is turning into the latter-day incarnation of John Watson.

The Ulsterman famously won for the team at Long Beach in 1983, having started 22nd on the grid - to this day, the lowest grid position for a race winner. What isn't so widely known is that he had set the previous record less than a year earlier, when he won the Detroit Grand Prix from 17th on the grid.

Raikkonen finished on the podium in Sakhir having started 22nd, himself just two races removed from an epic win from 17th at Suzuka.

Jenson Button finished fourth, and in doing so gave Honda the record for longest period of time between points-scoring finishes.

The Japanese constructors' last points came courtesy of Jo Bonnier in the 1968 Mexican GP. It was their last start until Sunday, but the 37.5-year gap easily beats the previous record: 29 years separated Juan-Manuel Fangio's win at Pedrables in 1951 and Bruno Giacomelli's 5th place in Buenos Aires, both driving for Alfa Romeo.

Toro Rosso had a better-than-expected weekend. Not only did both cars make it past the first period of qualifying, they also made it to the end of the race, and one - Tonio Liuzzi - finished on the lead lap.

Other teams will have undoubtedly taken note of the former Minardi team's impressive straightline speed throughout the weekend, as Liuzzi was sixth fastest through the speed trap during qualifying (300.3 kph), and fifth fastest during the race (307 kph). This from a team running a V10 engine which is supposedly less competitive than the V8s.

Speed trap figures in qualifying

Pos  Driver        Engine          KM/H
 1.  Alonso        Renault         305.0
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari         304.8
 3.  Villeneuve    BMW             303.7
 4.  Montoya       Mercedes        303.4
 5.  Fisichella    Renault         302.9
 6.  Liuzzi        Cosworth V10    300.3
 7.  Button        Honda           300.1
 8.  Massa         Ferrari         299.5
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW             299.5
10.  Webber        Cosworth V8     298.9
11.  Raikkonen     Mercedes        298.4
12.  Rosberg       Cosworth V8     298.4
13.  Speed         Cosworth V10    298.0
14.  R.Schumacher  Toyota          297.9
15.  Barrichello   Honda           297.8
16.  Klien         Ferrari         297.0
17.  Coulthard     Ferrari         295.4
18.  Albers        Toyota          294.8
19.  Monteiro      Toyota          293.8
20.  Trulli        Toyota          293.0
21.  Ide           Honda           284.2
22.  Sato          Honda           283.5

While the engine will provide the talking point, Scott Speed set the ninth-quickest race-lap, proving that there's more to Toro Rosso's performance than the power unit. Being in the top half of the timesheets is rare air for the Faenza-based team, but it may not last long. Several other teams could complains about their pace, not the least of which would be Red Bull Racing - Liuzzi was ahead of David Coulthard for 27 of the 57 laps, after passing him for 12th place on lap five.

Proving that the biggest budget doesn't guarantee success, both Toyotas were eliminated before the final period of qualifying, with Ralf Schumacher suffering the embarrassment of being knocked out in the first 15 minutes.

Initially, it seemed no more than a blip in form, but on race day, both Toyotas were soundly outraced by the Toro Rosso drivers, and Trulli's personal fastest race lap was only good enough to beat Tiago Monteiro's, and the two Super Aguris.

Unfortunately for technical director Mike Gascoyne, his design team cannot blame their shortcomings this weekend on Bridgestone, as Williams also made the switch from Michelin this winter (as well as changing their engine supplier), and seem to have made it work for them. The introduction of TF106B, slated for Monaco, cannot come soon enough.