2006 European GP: facts & Stats

Michael Schumacher created a notable niche for himself in winning the European GP on Sunday, as he became a five-time Nurburgring winner.

Okay, so it's not the Nordschleife circuit that used to strike fear into so many drivers, but even greats such as Juan-Manuel Fangio and Sir Jackie Stewart only won there three times.

Something that doesn't lose its luster over time is the feeling of winning on home soil, and nobody knows that better than Michael - this was his eight victory and 14th podium in Germany, stretching back to his first Hockenheim appearance in 1992.

While the Ferrari driver was enjoying his 145th career appearance on the rostrum, teammate Felipe Massa found himself spraying champagne for the first time since he won the Formula 3000 Euro Series in 2001.

Massa's previous best F1 result was fourth, which he had managed three times, including last time out at Imola. The notorious Indianapolis 2005 race was the last time we saw two drivers from the Scuderia in the top 3 finishers.

Splitting the red cars was Fernando Alonso, who further extended his streak of consecutive podiums to 11 - the second longest run ever.

Much like at Imola, the Spaniard didn't have the day he was hoping for, but his pole was surprisingly his first front row start of the year, and he also clocked up his 600th career lap in the lead, surpassing (temporarily at least) Juan Pablo Montoya on the all-time list.

Giancarlo Fisichella's pace must infuriate Renault from time to time. There are several examples of him suddenly finding pace in his car right at the end of a race - setting fastest lap on the final lap of the 2005 Spanish GP but finishing a minute behind the winner is a case in point.

In this race, the Italian was initially in the one minute and 35 seconds bracket, before dropping into the 1:34 by lap 22. Out of nowhere, Fisichella put in a 1:32.964 on lap 46, without ever doing a 1:33 lap in the race. To put that into context, the only other drivers in the 1:32 bracket were Schumacher, Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Fisichella did at least finish sixth, making it four points-scoring finishes in a row for the first time since his Sauber days in 2004.

McLaren's 600th world championship start went with a whimper rather than a bang, although fourth-placed Kimi Raikkonen was just 1.1 seconds away from second-placed Alonso at the end.

This was Raikkonen's 50th points-scoring finish, and it put him over the 300-career-point barrier. At least this year he made the finish - for the last three years at the Nurburgring, Raikkonen had suffered mechanical failure, including twice while leading the race. Montoya was running one place out of the points when his car failed eight laps from home.

At the venue where Honda made their F1 debut in 1964, Rubens Barrichello had his best weekend of the season so far. He out-qualified Jenson Button for the first time and finished fifth, having fended off the attentions of Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Button's day ended with his first mechanical retirement since the 2005 Bahrain GP - although he stopped with engine failure in Australia, he was still classified as a finisher. With a little more reliability, his already-impressive run of 13 points-finishes in last 15 starts would be better still.

For Rosberg, it was deja vu all over again. In Bahrain, he dropped to the back of the field after a tangle with Heidfeld at Turn 1. This weekend, it was an engine change that put him to the tail of the pack, but he once again drove a level-headed race and ended the day seventh - the same place he finished in the Sakhir race.

His luck contrasts with that of Williams teammate Mark Webber, who was stung for his third DNF in four starts.

Nico Rosberg at the European GP © LAT

Rosberg rescued what was otherwise a horrible weekend for Sir Frank Williams. Having been forced to change engines after qualifying, his cars were in their lowest starting positions since Jacques Laffite and Lella Lombardi lined up 21st and 24th at the 1975 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

Jacques Villeneuve took his first and last Formula One win at the Nurburgring (in 1996 and 1997 respectively), but eighth place this weekend was his first point at the circuit since then.

Jarno Trulli's pointless streak has now reached nine races - the same streak that he had during his Renault/Toyota transition in 2004.

Ralf Schumacher was set for sixth place in his 150th Grand Prix start until his engine failure caused his first DNF of the year, and he is yet to finish a European GP since winning the 2003 event.

Continuing established themes, David Coulthard and Christian Klien both retired for the third time in the last four races, and having out-qualified Klien's "senior" car, Toro Rosso's Tonio Liuzzi was this round's first lap retirement, something we've had at every Grand Prix in 2006.