2006 San Marino GP: facts & Stats

Discounting the six-car shambles that was the 2005 US Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher's 85th career win marked his first "real" triumph since the Japanese Grand Prix of 2004 - the longest drought of his Formula One career.

The seven-time world champion successfully fended off the challenge of Fernando Alonso - a mirror image of 12 months ago, when Schumacher, as reigning champion, was all over the back of Alonso, the man who would be king.

Although the Spaniard only finished second, the championship leader can still be content with his afternoon's work, as he further extended his streak of consecutive podium finishes to 10. Only one man has ever had a streak reaching into double figures... the ubiquitous Schumacher, who appeared on the podium for 19 straight Grands Prix in 2001-02.

As if the German didn't already hold enough records, Imola 2006 proved to be the weekend in which he finally overhauled the late Ayrton Senna's holy grail of 65 career pole positions.

The symmetry regarding the two drivers is almost eerie. Schumacher has surpassed the record at the circuit on which Senna took his final pole, one day before the accident that claimed his life 12 years ago.

Schumacher started alongside the Brazilian on the front row that day, and began his long haul to Senna's total by taking his maiden pole at Monaco, two weeks later. There was even a Safety Car period on the first lap in 1994, which had never happened in any other San Marino GP, until Sunday.

His 7th win at Imola matches his existing figures at Montreal and Magny-Cours as the most victories for one driver at a single circuit. It also gives Ferrari their 8th San Marino GP win, tying Williams's record.

Schumacher further extended his own record for most races led to a mammoth 130, and unlike Senna, who broke Jim Clark's pole mark at Phoenix in 1989, Schumacher converted his record-breaking pole into a victory.

Bridgestone have been a part of Schumacher's last 58 Grand Prix victories, and by taking their 96th win overall, it means that once again, the two incumbent tyire suppliers are tied on the all-time win list.

Looking down the field, Juan Pablo Montoya scored his first podium since winning at Interlagos last September. He narrowly beat Felipe Massa to third, but the Brazilian can still look forward to his 25th birthday on Tuesday in the knowledge that he equalled his best ever F1 finish and ensured Ferrari took 15 points from Imola - doubling their season total to date.

Kimi Raikkonen was a rather anonymous fifth, having masked his true pace by running heavy in the final period in qualifying - his best time in period 2, the third quickest overall in the session, was 0.968 seconds slower than his period 3 effort.

Mark Webber was slower still, a massive 1.077 seconds off what he managed in period 2, but the more conservative strategy paid dividends, as he brought Williams their first finish of any description since back in Bahrain, with his run to sixth.

Toward the end, Webber was fending off the attentions of the much-delayed Jenson Button. For the seventh consecutive race, the Englishman finished lower than where he started, and Honda's pitstop blunder meant their decision to sacrifice Button's points finish in Australia to avoid a 10-position grid penalty was largely wasted.

Williams driver Mark Webber has a minor off-track excursion during the San Marino GP © XPB/LAT

The minor consolation is extending the BAR/Honda amalgam's streak of consecutive points finishes to 13, the same as Mclaren.

Rubens Barrichello also had a Button-esque weekend, ending in tenth, having started third - his best qualifying since taking pole for the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Also like Button, the Brazilian extended a rather trivial streak - it's now been more than a year since he failed to finish a race, although he was point-less in 11 of those 19 starts.

Taking the final point might not be much to write home about, but Giancarlo Fisichella has at least ended a point-less streak at Imola that stretched back into the last decade. Next year he'll have to work on his qualifying performance - it's nine years and counting since he started on any of the top nine grid positions of this track.

BMW-Sauber may have hoped for more from a race in which Jacques Villeneuve finished fourth in 2006 - this year they trailed in 12th and 13th, although Villeneuve will at least have bragging rights over Nick Heidfeld, having beaten him and finished on the lead lap.

It's a similar story at Toro Rosso, where Tonio Liuzzi outpaced a lackluster Scott Speed, despite a spin at Variante Alta. Red Bull would kill for the reliability of their Toro Rosso cousins right now. Of the last 6 "car" starts they've made (three races, including this weekend), they've retired 5 times - only Coulthard's point in Melbourne bucks the trend.

With his usual metronomic efficiency, Tiago Monteiro finished for Midland, albeit as the last classified runner. He did at least avoid being passed by both Super Aguris at the start (which had happened at all the other races so far), and for the first time he outqualified his 2006 teammate, leaving Massa, Barrichello and Yuji Ide as the only drivers yet to achieve such a feat.

Monteiro was way off the pace in the final section of the race, struggling to break the one minute and 30 seconds barrier, while the Toro Rossos were hovering around the 1:26 range, and both Midland and Aguri are still well adrift on pace compared to their rivals.

The qualifying gap between 18th-placed Scott Speed and 19th-placed Monteiro was 1.4 seconds, a bigger gap than the one separating the first nine on the grid.

By finishing the opening three races, Takuma Sato had given Super Aguri reason for optimism so far, but the double retirement of both him and teammate Ide gave the team an unwanted reality check.

With Sato gaining eight positions at the start in Melbourne, Aguri's unofficial strategy seems to be to make up as many positions as possible on lap 1, when their car deficiency is at its least apparent.

The evidence backs it up, as they are always among the first 10 drivers to pit, showing that, among other things, they expect a good start as a consequence of running light.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli during qualifying for the San Marino GP © Reuters

At this race, Sato moved up one position on the first lap, but that was merely at the expense of a barrel-rolling Christijan Albers. The irony was that teammate Ide was the man trying to pass the Midland driver, aware that it was likely to be his only chance at doing so.

Speaking of first lap statistics, it is a lap on which we have seen retirements in all four races in 2006 - but Albers now has the unenviable record of having been among these first lap retirements on two occasions.

Perhaps the most frustrated man leaving Imola was Jarno Trulli, who has now gone eight races without scoring a point.

This weekend the Italian became the 25th driver to start 150 Grands Prix, but his day's work at Imola was done by lap 5. Combined with his lap 1 retirement in Melbourne, Trulli's total racing mileage in the month of April amounts to just 24 kms.