2006 Spanish GP: facts & Stats

It's 12 podiums in a row (and counting) for Fernando Alonso, having taken the win on home soil that has eluded him in his four previous appearances in Barcelona.

While Michael Schumacher has won on home territory no fewer than eight times, the 135,000 sellout Spanish crowd had never seen anything like this at Barcelona - the closest comparison in recent years is probably when Alex Criville won the MotoGP event in 1999.

Perhaps the win is not surprising, given the results of qualifying, when Alonso took the 150th pole position for Renault engines. In 16 F1 events at Barcelona, only once had a race winner come from below the front row of the grid (Schumacher in 1996, from third place). Added to that, nine of the last ten Spanish Grands Prix have been won from pole position.

Schumacher's second place was much more like his regular Barcelona performances. He is the only man to compete in every F1 race at the Barcelona circuit, and last year's retirement marked the only time that he failed to score points there.

In contrast, Giancarlo Fisichella was on the podium for the first time ever at this racetrack. One of his most curious statistics is that he has only two career fastest laps to his name - and they both came at Barcelona, as a youngster with Jordan-Peugeot in 1997, and then repeating the feat on the last lap in 2005.

Fisichella beat Felipe Massa in a battle of the number 2 drivers, and it is surprising that he did so. Not only did he go off the track on lap 25, but also Massa came into the race with a not-insignificant advantage down the straights.

The speed traps showed that Massa was 8.5km/h quicker than any non-Ferrari in qualifying, and a huge 28.3km/h quicker than Christijan Albers' Midland.

Kimi Raikkonen had another one of those nondescript afternoons, which is becoming his specialty in 2006 - this was the third race in a row in which he has scored points but not been on the podium.

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were sixth and seventh for Honda, which was the team's first double points finish since the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix, when American Ritchie Ginther took Honda (and Goodyear's) maiden win, compatriot Ronnie Bucknum was fifth.

Nick Heidfeld brought BMW-Sauber their fourth points-haul in the last five races, with his run to eighth place. Mark Webber, who had not finished three of the last four, did at least make it to the end this time, although with no points. Along with his failure to make it through to the final period of qualifying - a first this year - it was a disappointing weekend for the Australian.

His disappointment isn't in the category of Jarno Trulli's, though. The Italian must be starting to wonder if he'll ever score points again in Formula One - he has gone 10 races without troubling the scorers. Even the likes of Tiago Monteiro recorded a top 8 finish more recently than Trulli, who finished third at Barcelona last year.

Jacques Villeneuve, relegated to last place after a double engine change, managed to haul his way up to 12th in the final standings, partly due to being the only driver to opt for a one-stop strategy.

While 12th may not sound spectacular, he outperformed David Coulthard, who started alongside him in the Red Bull Ferrari. The Scotsman finished 20 seconds behind the Canadian, despite being on a more regular two-stopper.

Takuma Sato recorded Super Aguri's first finish since the Australian GP, although he was four laps down on Fernando Alonso. New boy Franck Montagny is finding seat time hard to come by. Even though he didn't make it past period 1 in qualifying, he completed almost as many laps in that session (6) as he did in the actual race (7).