2006 French GP: Facts & Stats

Practically every time Michael Schumacher leaves the pits, it means a rewrite of the record books is necessary, but this weekend the German passed some notable milestones as he makes a championship charge that seemed unlikely just a few weeks ago.

As was widely reported in advance, victory at Magny-Cours meant Schumacher was the first driver to win at the same track on eight different occasions.

He already took the record of most wins of the same Grand Prix when he won his seventh Canadian Grand Prix in 2004, matching that tally in the French Grand Prix the same season and repeating the feat earlier this season at Imola.

The only other man to win as many as six races in one place is Ayrton Senna, who (still) holds the Monaco GP record. By contrast, no other active driver has won more than twice on any circuit, although Jacques Villeneuve has the curious distinction of winning on the same track twice in different events (the 1996 European GP and 1997 Luxembourg GP, both at the Nurburgring).

Schumacher isn't just dominant at Magny-Cours on race day. By taking pole position, it means that he has now outqualified his respective teammate on all 15 occasions he has competed on this circuit.

The presence of Felipe Massa alongside him gave Ferrari their first front row lockout on French soil since 1961, when the invincible shark-nose 156 chassis swept the front row at Reims, in the hands of Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips and Richie Ginther.

Amid all that excitement, it's easy to overlook that Schumacher also scored in the French Grand Prix his 150th podium finish. Only Alain Prost (106) is even remotely close to triple-figures in this category, with third-placed Ayrton Senna having "only" 80 trips to the rostrum.

Eleven of Schumacher's 150 top-three finishes have been here, underlining his dominance of this track down the years. His fastest lap was the 50th of his Ferrari career, the same number as the next four (Rubens Barrichello, Clay Regazzoni, Niki Lauda and Alberto Ascari) combined.

Magny-Cours seems to be the exclusive domain of British and German drivers, as they have taken 14 of a possible 16 wins on this circuit. The only interlopers are Alain Prost (a winner in 1993), and Fernando Alonso last year.

Having had to watch Michelin celebrate their 100th Grand Prix victory at the Canadian Grand Prix less than a month ago, Bridgestone themselves now stand on 99 wins. That's an excellent strike rate given that they've only started 164 races since they entered full-time in 1997 - and only having a monopoly on supply in 1999 and 2000.

Michelin were in the unaccustomed position of not being on pole position for their home race. They had taken pole in every French GP they'd entered since Jacques Laffite's Goodyear-shod Ligier was quickest in qualifying at Paul Ricard in 1980.

This was a race of damage limitation for Michelin's lead driver Alonso, but his 50th points finish also extended his run of finishes to 21 in a row, and he led three laps to maintain his run of leading every race in 2006.

Toyota's most competitive showing of the season resulted in Ralf Schumacher netting fourth place. This has never been a circuit on which the Japanese team have excelled, having never got a car home on the lead lap before.

Like his brother (but to a lesser extent), Schumacher Jr. is a bit of a Magny-Cours ace, having scored points in all but one of his nine starts. A fact that went unnoticed by practically everyone is that France was the 150th race to feature both of the Schumacher brothers, and Ralf came close to making it the 17th time they've stood on the same podium.

Fourth could so easily have fell to Ralf's Toyota teammate Jarno Trulli, but for the Italian's wretched luck. After a week in which he celebrated his 32nd birthday and saw Italy win the World Cup (resulting in yet another new helmet design), he led for the first time since last year's Bahrain Grand Prix, only to be stopped by mechanical failure on lap 39. At the most recent four races, he has the quirky record of starting last, fourth, last and fourth.

Giancarlo Fisichella's World Cup edition helmet design © LAT

Giancarlo Fisichella continued to sport the colours of Italy in deference to the new football world champions, but it did not change his indifferent Magny-Cours form, as sixth equaled his best ever finish on French soil. However, for the first time he escaped the indignity of being lapped.

Moving effortlessly from being a Spanish television commentator to being a race driver for McLaren, Pedro de la Rosa was the last man on the lead lap and had a solid run to seventh. He set the fastest lap of any Michelin runner in the race (0.514 seconds behind Schumacher's outright best). This race was not quite as impressive as his one off appearance in Bahrain last year, but he's qualified eighth for both of his McLaren starts so far.

Taking the final point was BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. His recent consistency has netted him five points' finishes in the last six races, with the only minor hiccup coming when he barrel-rolled no fewer than four times at Indianapolis.

David Coulthard will feel frustrated to have missed out on eighth place, having made it through to the final period of qualifying for only the second time all year. The previous time (Monaco) resulted in a podium finish. This was his 204th Grand Prix start, tying him with Nelson Piquet for 5th on the all-time list. Curiously, while DC has only taken 18 fastest laps in that time, five of them came in consecutive years at Magny-Cours (1998-2002).

Christijan Albers made it to the end of the race despite suffering from gum disease all weekend. Team boss Colin Kolles, a qualified dentist, might need to change his job title at Midland soon. Not only did he have to look after Albers in France, but he also had to perform root canal surgery on Tiago Monteiro at last year's Turkish GP!

Williams's miserable season continues, with Nico Rosberg only managing 14th, and Mark Webber failing to finish for the seventh time this year - more than any other driver. The team have now failed to score points in the last six races, their longest barren streak since an eight-race run across the 1984-85 seasons - ironically when Keke Rosberg was one of the drivers.

Honda can empathise with how Williams are feeling, having seen both their drivers drop out of the race on Sunday - the first time that's happened to a works Honda team since the 1966 US GP at Watkins Glen.

Jenson Button has now gone five races without a point, and he's probably hoping for a repeat of last year: the Briton went the entire first half of 2005 without finishing in the top eight until he got to Magny-Cours, and then scored in all ten remaining races.