The Complete 2006 European GP Review

The doubters have their answer - Ferrari really are back. Not only did Michael Schumacher control the European Grand Prix weekend, but Felipe Massa underlined the squad's strength by virtually matching his team leader and taking his first Formula One podium.

This time the celebrations were perhaps a little more routine - the sense of euphoric relief apparent a fortnight ago now replaced by the calm satisfaction so often evident in Ferrari's dominant recent seasons. Of course we are at the front, they seem to say, where else did you expect us to be?

"I thought we looked good already at the first race, so it's not a surprise," said Schumacher, with the air of someone back in their customary place after too long away. "With the exception of Malaysia, where we probably weren't that competitive, in the rest of the races we had the package available.

"It's no surprise to expect Renault up at the front, and also they shouldn't be surprised to see us at the front either."

While Ferrari may have joined Renault at the front of recent races, they still have some distance to recover in the championship battles. It was this knowledge, plus awareness of Renault's awesome Barcelona test form, that gave Alonso comfort after his second straight defeat.

"Second place is a fantastic result considering we were a little bit down from Ferrari's performance this weekend," he said. "Also, I think the tyres were not perfectly okay.

"So even with everything, to get the eight points means that we have everything okay and we should win again.

"I think in the next two races Michelin may be stronger than Bridgestone. I think Barcelona will be a good point, because we have always been strong there in testing. I'm really looking forward to winning that one..."

As bullish as Alonso may be, there was something ominously nostalgic about the manner of Schumacher's victory. How many times over the last decade has he shadowed a rival, perhaps even lulled them into a false sense of security, then clinched victory by revealing the pace he had held in reserve and beating his baffled opponent out of the pitlane?

Of course, Alonso has experience of successfully defending a points lead from a foe in a faster car. But he already seems aware that 2006 could be even harder than last season. The rumours have always suggested that Renault make do with a far smaller budget than their fellow manufacturer-back teams, and Alonso's unprompted post-race remarks about finances implied that he might have a few doubts about Renault's ability to respond to a Ferrari onslaught.

"I think it's all about money, about lots of things, about how you develop the car," he said, before returning to his quietly confident line. "We're happy. We were world champions last year, we are leading both world championships this year, so the team should be quite good.

"The important thing from now on is who has the quicker rate of development," said Schumacher. "We have been good traditionally, in the past. Not very good last year, but sometimes everybody needs a break..."

Indeed they do, and Ferrari certainly seem revitalised now they have returned from their 'holiday'. But don't underestimate Alonso's ability to cling on in the face of enormous pressure. Victories in this style may be reminiscent of so many of Schumacher's past triumphs, but the German knows he is up against arguably the most tenacious title rival that he has ever faced.

Practice

The Eifel climate may have generously provided sunshine rather than the snow that covered the paddock just a week earlier, but still the Nurburgring refused to offer the drivers any grip during Friday practice, causing countless complaints about understeer.

Williams test driver Alex Wurz dominated the opening sessions. Anthony Davidson, Robert Doornbos and Robert Kubica all headed Friday morning practice for a while, before Wurz's 1:32.079 with 11 minutes remaining put the Austrian 1.2 seconds clear of them all.

The others closed in a little, but no one looked like beating Wurz. As usual, Michael Schumacher emerged for a last minute run and was the fastest race driver in fourth.

There was even less grip on offer in the afternoon, and the times stayed fairly static after an initial flurry.

Nico Rosberg was fastest early on, the rookie being allowed more Friday running this time. The young German may be a fast learner, but there was a suspicion that his recent slump owed something to the Cosworth mileage limitations that prevented him from getting the ample practice mileage that any rookie - even an intellectual GP2 champion - needs.

Fernando Alonso's 1:33.579 after 22 minutes usurped Rosberg and looked like remaining the practice benchmark until Wurz threw in a 1:32.675 just as the chequered flag came out.

Despite Alonso's speed, Renault were one of several teams troubled by their car's handling, with McLaren and BMW also expressing concerns.

There was more contentment at Midland. Friday tester Adrian Sutil's 10th place in the quiet morning session was a reasonable effort, but maintaining that position when the full field came out in the afternoon was an excellent achievement - the best performance yet by one of MF1 Racing's abundance of third drivers.

"I helped him to become a Mercedes junior driver and I know his potential," said Colin Kolles. "If he continues in this way, he will have a good future in F1."

Yuji Ide's Formula One future looks rather bleaker after his sudden ejection from Super Aguri's line-up. Although Aguri Suzuki insisted that Ide would return as a test driver, his current duties clearly do not include Grand Prix Fridays.

In his place, Franck Montagny was immediately matching Sato's pace, and was pleasantly surprised by F1's least competitive chassis. "The car was not as slow as I expected," he said.

Saturday morning saw an array of drivers taking turns to go quickest, including Jarno Trulli, both Ferraris, Christian Klien, Nico Rosberg, Alonso, Jenson Button and even Vitantonio Liuzzi, before Michael Schumacher leapt 1.3 seconds ahead of the pack with five minutes remaining.

This kick-started a rush of last-minute improvements, as drivers got into qualifying mode. With Massa eventually taking second, and Alonso's best lap over a second down on Schumacher's, it looked like the red cars held the advantage once again as qualifying neared.

There would be bad news for Williams shortly after the session, as an oil analysis revealed some worrying particles in Mark Webber and Rosberg's Cosworth engines. "We don't like our engines blowing up in races," said Cosworth's Bernard Ferguson. "It was better to take the hit in qualifying."

Practice round up

Sorted by total laps from all three sessions

Qualifying

Part one

Q1 was proceeding quite uneventfully until notification of a red flag suddenly appeared on the computer screens and lighting gantry with three minutes and 28 seconds remaining. The clock stopped and the TV cameras searched in vain for whatever dramatic incident had caused the stoppage.

Within a few seconds it became clear that the red flag was but a phantom, caused by a glitch in the starting lights panel. The clock restarted and the session officially resumed.

But the damage had been done. Drivers on quick laps had backed off when informed of the red flag; others had been pushed back into their garages and aborted their final flying laps; some had not had their laps counted because they crossed the line while the clock was stopped.

Moreover, by the time the system cleared, there was no time to go back out for another shot. In retrospect, throwing an actual red flag might have been the better option.

At first, Jacques Villeneuve was not even credited with a time, but the timing screens were reset so that the lap he completed during the 'stoppage' was counted, elevating the BMW Sauber from 21st to seventh.

Although Franck Montagny was in the same situation, his extra lap included a spin at Turn 1, so he remained last. Unaffected by the confusion, Takuma Sato took his anticipated 21st position.

Scott Speed blamed traffic after taking 19th, while Midland were adamant that Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro would have bettered 18th and 20th had they not abandoned their final laps thanks to the red flag.

"It's pretty clear that we suffered the biggest disadvantage as a result of this problem," said Colin Kolles.

Christian Klien was "massively pissed off" after the double disaster of both backing off unnecessarily for the red flag and then being blocked by Sato on his subsequent lap. Given his practice form, he felt a return to the top ten had been on the cards, but he would end up 17th instead.

At the front, Fernando Alonso was fastest by 0.097 seconds from Michael Schumacher.

Part two

Schumacher quickly took control of Q2 with a 1:30.013 lap, the fastest of the weekend so far, but the difference between this lap and the elimination cut-off was just 0.9 seconds, as the margin separating top 10 qualification from midfield embarrassment remained as flimsy as ever.

Some never looked like they were in the hunt - Vitantonio Liuzzi feeling that he was "pretty much at our limit" in 16th for Toro Rosso, and Nick Heidfeld admitting to underperformance in 15th.

David Coulthard has grown accustomed to his qualifying sessions being over within half an hour and the Nurburgring was no exception. An error in the final corner left him 14th.

With a few minutes remaining, both Toyotas and Giancarlo Fisichella (whose first flying lap was now only good enough for 16th) were the other three drivers fighting for survival.

Jarno Trulli was first to leap to safety, his 1:30.733 lap shunting Jacques Villeneuve down to 11th. At that moment, the BMW Sauber was on an out-lap, with Fisichella gaining on it. Much to the Italian's chagrin, Villeneuve remained ahead and although Fisichella managed a 1:31.197, this was only good enough for 10th.

Fisichella's improvement briefly put Jenson Button down to 11th and prompted the Honda driver to make an unplanned second run. Button duly moved up to seventh, putting Nico Rosberg out of the top ten, just after Ralf Schumacher had gone ninth and pushed Fisichella back out again as well.

There was no time for Fisichella to respond, and in a final irony Villeneuve's flying lap would take the BMW up to a safe ninth place, at the expense of Ralf Schumacher, who felt that a spin in the stadium complex had compromised his tyres.

Ending up 12th made little difference to Rosberg given his engine change penalty, but 13th was a disaster for Fisichella, a fortnight after failing to make the Imola top 10. He was adamant that Villeneuve was entirely to blame, and stormed first to the BMW Sauber garage for some vehement gesticulations before lodging an official protest.

Part three

With pressure mounting for some form of rule change, would the Nurburgring be the last time that the ten fastest drivers of the weekend had to spend 15 minutes of qualifying pointlessly damaging F1's already poor environmental reputation while aiming to lap within 110% of the pace? Most would hope so.

Michael Schumacher was proceeding with more urgency than the others, lapping in the 1:32s during the fuel-burning stage, while his rivals settled for a pace several seconds slower.

Alonso may have managed to finish first or second in every race so far this season without a single front row qualifying position, but Ferrari's ominous practice pace convinced Renault to take Saturday afternoon more seriously at the Nurburgring.

The Spaniard therefore pitted for new tyres earlier than usual, and then took provisional pole with a 1:30.454 five minutes from the chequered flag. Schumacher's immediate response was 0.022 seconds slower.

Both men dived into the pits for fresh tyres and then charged out for a final showdown, which saw Alonso lower his previous mark by over 0.6 seconds, and Schumacher fall 0.209 seconds short of another pole position. Not what the home crowd had expected after practice.

Felipe Massa continued to shadow his team leader with third on the grid, ahead of Rubens Barrichello, who said that his fourth place was a sign of genuine improvement and not a light fuel mirage. He was two positions clear of teammate Button, who never got the Honda balanced to his satisfaction.

Following this season's pattern, McLaren ran more fuel in Q3, leaving Kimi Raikkonen fifth and Juan Pablo Montoya ninth. But would this strategy actually pay off in the race? It certainly had not in the previous four rounds.

Jarno Trulli was extremely pleased with seventh for Toyota, while Villeneuve was a little disgruntled with eighth. He would be even less pleased when the stewards deleted his Q3 qualifying times as a punishment for impeding Fisichella.

This had not been anything like as clear a case as the Sato/Klien incident in Q1, but with modern aerodynamics a car does not have to be that far in front to cost their rival time and grip.

"I guess they wanted to make any example of me," mused Villeneuve, who would consequently drop to 10th, before rising to ninth when Webber's engine penalty was applied. "That's okay, as long as it's going to be the same for everyone else at the other races..."

Knowing that he had to start near the back due to his engine penalty, Mark Webber ran a heavy fuel load and was never likely to better 10th. But Williams were still confident about their pace.

"If we'd gone with the other route on strategy we would have been on the front row easily," said technical director Sam Michael.

Qualifying results

The grid

 1.  Alonso        Renault
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari

 3.  Massa         Ferrari
 4.  Barrichello   Honda

 5.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes
 6.  Button        Honda

 7.  Trulli        Toyota
 8.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes

 9.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (penalised by stewards)
10.  R.Schumacher  Toyota

11.  Fisichella    Renault
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari

13.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber
14.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth

15.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari
16.  Albers        Midland-Toyota

17.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth
18.  Monteiro      Midland-Toyota

19.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (engine change penalty)
20.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda

21.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda
22.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (engine change penalty)

The Race

The first corner at the Nurburgring was always something of a bottleneck when it was a mere S-bend, so its transformation into an unfeasibly tight hairpin in 2002 was bound to make European Grand Prix race starts a little hair-raising.

With pole position and the best starting system in the field on his side, Fernando Alonso had little trouble leading into Turn 1. In his wake, Felipe Massa got alongside Michael Schumacher approaching the corner, then slotted in behind as Schumacher claimed the inside line.

A slow start from Rubens Barrichello should have left the way clear for Kimi Raikkonen to claim fourth, but instead he had to concede to Jenson Button as the Honda made an assertive move down the inside. Button also had a look at Massa further around the complex before settling for fourth.

Jarno Trulli ran fifth ahead of the sluggish Barrichello, then came Jacques Villeneuve, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Juan Pablo Montoya down in 11th, having made a poor start then lost a further two places between turns three and four.

The inevitable accident happened just behind this group. Ralf Schumacher was caught between Vitantonio Liuzzi and David Coulthard at Turn 1. Contact between the Toyota and the Toro Rosso sent Liuzzi spinning to the inside, where he was collected and corrected by Coulthard, damaging both cars.

The major beneficiary of this was Takuma Sato. He had passed both Midlands off the line, then outbraked several cars on the outside into Turn 1.

Then, as Schumacher, Coulthard and Liuzzi straightened themselves out and delayed those in their immediate wake, Sato simply accelerated around the outside of the traffic jam and emerged in 12th, ahead of Mark Webber, Christian Klien, Schumacher, Scott Speed, Tiago Monteiro, Franck Montagny, Christijan Albers and Nico Rosberg.

Liuzzi attempted to limp back to the pits with a damaged right rear corner, but had to abandon his car in the middle of the road after spinning at the Bit Kurve. This resulted in a safety car period, during which Coulthard would also retire as the damage to his Red Bull proved irreparable.

It only took two laps to pluck the Toro Rosso out of the way. Alonso frustrated Schumacher's attempt to get a run on him at the restart, but could not shake the Ferrari off.

Behind Massa, Raikkonen despatched Button into the NGK chicane and rejoined the elite top four group that would leave the rest of the field trailing in their wake for the next hour and a half. They habitually lapped in the 1:33s during the first stint, while those behind managed 1:34s at best.

Alonso set a series of early fastest laps, but the stalking Ferrari that remained within a second of his gearbox consistently matched them to within a tenth, or immediately beat Alonso's benchmark times.

Ferrari's Ross Brawn had openly hinted that Renault must have run light to get Alonso onto pole position, so the obvious inference was that Schumacher would just have to wait until the Renault pitted early and then unleash his true pace.

But in the event, only a single lap separated their first stops, Alonso diving in on lap 17 and Schumacher following next time around.

By that time, Alonso had already set new fastest sector times on his out lap, and coupled with Ferrari's decision to go for a slightly long middle stint, this allowed the world champion to regain the lead by several car lengths.

Massa kept the leaders in sight at first, before pitting at the same time as Alonso. But whereas the latter rejoined in clear air, Massa lost two seconds passing Trulli on his out lap.

The early stops allowed Raikkonen to take the lead, and a series of very fast low fuel laps hinted that maybe McLaren's conservative qualifying strategy was finally going to pay off after a run of underwhelming races.

Raikkonen opened a lead of 13.6 seconds over Alonso before making his first stop on lap 23, and he took another 0.7 seconds per lap off the leaders for a short time after rejoining fourth. But just as he looked like becoming a factor in the lead battle, Raikkonen's pace faded, and he fell back from nine seconds to 13 seconds behind.

Schumacher had quickly closed up on Alonso after the pitstops, only to lose 2.5 seconds with an error at the Bit Kurve on lap 24. For a few laps it looked like this could prove to be a turning point, but then Schumacher began inching back up towards the Renault once again.

In a repeat of the first stint, all Alonso's new fastest laps were immediately matched or bettered, and Renault began preparing themselves for the inevitable.

"We needed a gap of several seconds," said Pat Symonds, who knew that Ferrari could go further before pitting, "but however hard we pushed, Michael was able to respond and close up again. It was therefore well before the second stop that we were aware he would come out in front of us."

Symonds' scepticism was well founded. Alonso's final shot before pitting was a new fastest lap of 1:32.532, but this was beaten by Schumacher's 1:32.523 less than a second later. Next time around (lap 37), Alonso dived into the pits, allowing Schumacher to really stretch his legs with a 1:32.420 and a 1:32.099 (which would stand as the race's fastest), followed by a 1:32.1 for good measure.

With Alonso's out laps around 1.6 seconds slower, this race was decided. Schumacher pitted on lap 41, and rejoined 5.5 seconds ahead of Alonso, who immediately went into engine conservation mode.

Raikkonen assumed the lead once again, staying out another three laps before pitting. This was insufficient to get him out ahead of Massa, but it did bring the McLaren a lot closer to the rear of the Ferrari, and as Raikkonen tried to pressure Massa over the final laps, so both began catching Alonso.

They would end the race in the sort of nose to tail train that would have been quite dramatic but for the suspicion that they had probably all switched their V8s to 'gentle' mode. "Maybe it was a bit close at the end, but clearly it was controlled," said Alonso.

Schumacher also eased off, winning by 3.751 seconds, with 1.1 seconds covering the following trio. All those who dismissed Ferrari's Imola form as anomalous had been proved emphatically wrong, to the delight of about 120,000 flag-waving Germans.

The seven times world champion was back in business, and after 86 wins it was no surprise that he was struggling to find new ways of expressing his satisfaction.

"If you finish first, what can you say?" Schumacher pondered. "It makes everybody happy who wants to see us winning, obviously. It was a great race, great strategy, great performance all the way through."

For third placed Massa, the podium experience was far more of a novelty, as this was the best result of his career so far. His attempts to leap into the arms of Brawn and Schumacher in parc ferme ended up a bit inelegant, but if Ferrari maintain this form then he will have plenty of chances to practice his celebrations.

Had they driven the final third of the race flat out, the top four would probably have lapped the rest of the field. Button appeared on course for a comfortable 'best of the rest' spot, albeit some distance away from the podium dice, until an engine failure on lap 28.

Trulli looked promising in the early stages, running around seven seconds behind Button and staying out until lap 25 before pitting for the first time.

However, the Toyota's poor pace on light fuel meant that this strategy proved counter-productive, and Trulli rejoined in 11th, behind all the cars that he had pulled away from during the opening laps. Troubled by inconsistent handling thereafter, his challenge for points was over.

Webber was the other man who appeared to have a clear shot at fifth. Running a very large fuel load, he had quickly cleared Sato and cruised on to the tail of the lower top ten train, all of whom he could have leapfrogged via Williams's strategy. But that could only be a supposition, for Webber pulled off with a loss of hydraulic fluid on lap 14.

So that left Barrichello to emerge in fifth once the first stops were complete. He had a small advantage over Ralf Schumacher, who had jumped back into contention with a perfectly timed and executed first pitstop. Fisichella and Montoya had the pace to beat both the Honda and the Toyota, but seemed doomed to spend their whole race behind BMWs.

Although Montoya had put a straightforward move on Fisichella into Turn 1 on lap 5, he could not do the same to ninth-placed Heidfeld. Both men passed the German during the stops, only to come up behind his similarly immovable teammate Villeneuve, with Fisichella now in front of Montoya after a side-by-side passage through the first stadium section following the McLaren's pit visit.

By now Rosberg was in contention as well. Heavily fuel laden, the Williams spent the early laps in 16th place behind Scott Speed, but as those ahead peeled off into the pits, Rosberg kept pounding round and got quicker and quicker, rising to fifth before finally stopping on lap 33. Surprisingly, this would not be his one and only stop, but the first of two. Nevertheless it was still sufficient to get Rosberg on to the tail of the queue behind Villeneuve.

Fisichella, Montoya and Rosberg all jumped Villeneuve by staying out later at the end of the second stint, with Rosberg actually emerging narrowly in front of the McLaren as well. By running longer, the trio also managed to gain ground on Barrichello and Schumacher, creating a five car battle for fifth with just ten laps remaining.

The contest proved to be close rather than scintillating. Both Schumacher and Montoya dropped out with engine failures on lap 53 - a shame for the German, as sixth would have been a fine result given his opening lap delay, but perhaps a relief for Montoya, who looked destined to finish outside the points.

That left Fisichella and Rosberg to chase Barrichello to the flag, while Villeneuve returned to the points in eighth thanks to the late retirements.

Trulli eventually slipped to ninth, a lap down, ahead of the equally troubled Heidfeld, who had to fend off Speed in the closing laps. Both may have been vulnerable to Klien, had he not struck gearbox problems when 13th on lap 28.

The MF1 Racing duo ran nose to tail for most of the race, although having to move off line for the leaders meant that they never really managed a fully fledged battle. Monteiro led Albers by 2.4 seconds as they crossed the line in 12th and 13th.

Hydraulic problems caused the retirement of both Super Aguris. Sato outlasted Montagny by 16 laps but reported a loss of power from the early stages, which prevented him from repeating his Melbourne heroics despite a similarly proactive opening lap. All the big names that he had passed into the first corner were able to ease back ahead of the Super Aguri with minimal delay.

Once Sato was able to concentrate on his own race rather than a vain rearguard action against displaced frontrunners, he started easing away from Montagny, who nevertheless impressed on his overdue Grand Prix debut.

Team by Team

RENAULT

Alonso isn't over happy with the car in practice but still takes pole position. He holds off Schumacher's constant challenge until the final pitstops, and then settles for second.

Fisichella misses out on a top 10 qualifying slot for the second race in a row, and this time holds Villeneuve entirely responsible. He spends most of the afternoon in traffic, eventually advancing to sixth.

Verdict: Still leading both tables, but second successive defeat is surely a cause for concern.

Raikkonen and Montoya do minimal practice mileage and then use heavy fuel loads to qualify fourth and ninth respectively. The Finn loses out to Button at the first corner but quickly redresses the balance.

Although he closes a little on the leaders by running longer stints, Raikkonen does not quite have the pace to fight for victory and has to settle for chasing Massa home in fourth place.

Montoya drops out of the top 10 with a poor start and opening lap, and never really recovers, spending the entire race stuck behind (mostly BMW shaped) rivals. Looks set for ninth place when his engine fails in the closing stages.

Verdict: Surely time to ditch the conservative plan and go for broke.

Schumacher looks fastest all weekend, except when Alonso narrowly beats him to pole position. He pushes the Renault until the final pitstop sequence, when a series of quick laps helps the Ferrari to emerge comfortably in front and proceed to another victory.

Massa is far from outclassed, qualifying third and holding that position in the race, lapping close to Schumacher's times. Copes well with simultaneously attacking Alonso and defending from Raikkonen over the last few laps.

Verdict: The class of the field once again.

Trulli's seventh in qualifying turns out to be a strong performance given his hefty fuel load, but the strategy doesn't pay off in the race. Inconsistent handling means that an early sixth place somehow turns into ninth by the flag.

Ralf moves in the opposite direction, despite a less than promising start. A spin in qualifying leaves him 11th, and he falls to 15th after a first corner tangle. Yet by the time he emerges from his late first stop, Schumacher is up to seventh. He is on course for sixth when his engine fails seven laps from the end.

Verdict: Still not on last year's form, but better than the results suggest.

Wurz tops both Friday sessions, suggesting that Williams are in for a good weekend. But looming engine problems mean new V8s for both Webber and Rosberg before qualifying, so they have to take grid penalties and start 19th and 22nd on heavy fuel loads.

Webber jumps to 12th at the start and is surely destined for an eventual fifth, only to drop out with a hydraulic leak on lap 14. Rosberg makes it to the end, running fifth for a while before a late second stop drops him back to seventh.

Verdict: Reliability problems are a frustration, but the pace is there, and Rosberg's slump appears to be over.

Barrichello's fourth on the grid and fifth in the race are perhaps deceptive, as Honda are some way off the lead pace this weekend. He loses ground with a poor start, but still manages to stay at the head of the lower top 10 queue throughout the race, aided a little by the retirements of others.

Button never settles and qualifies sixth - his worst of the year. Runs a lonely fifth until his engine fails shortly before half distance.

Verdict: Starting to drift out of the lead group.

Promising practice pace convinces Klien that he can break into the top 10 in qualifying. Instead, he ends up 17th after being blocked by Sato. Progress to 13th in the race before dropping out with gearbox failure.

Coulthard qualifies 14th but sustains terminal damage in a first corner tangle with Ralf Schumacher and Liuzzi.

Verdict: Treading water.

Villeneuve is the team's leading light again, qualifying eighth, only to lose a place when penalised for blocking Fisichella. Runs in the top 10 throughout, invariably working hard to fend off faster cars. Loses out to his pursuers during the pitstops, but attrition ahead brings him back to eighth at the end.

Heidfeld is outclassed again. He is keen to get to the bottom of his current handling problems after qualifying 14th and finishing 10th.

Verdict: Race pace a little disappointing, but plenty of reasons for optimism. Heidfeld's comparatively poor form is puzzling, though.

Test driver Sutil stuns with 10th place in Friday practice, and the team go into qualifying with a lot of optimism. But they are worst affected by the phantom red flag - abandoning their second runs and ending up 18th (Albers) and 20th (Monteiro).

Faster than the Super Aguris, but slower than the rest, the MF1 duo have to entertain themselves by running nose to tail for most of the race. Monteiro ultimately beats Albers to 12th.

Verdict: A long way from true competitiveness, but definite signs of progress.

Liuzzi cruises through to Q2 but then hits the car's limit and takes 16th. A good start leads to contact with Ralf Schumacher, spinning him into Coulthard and ultimately out of the race.

Speed qualifies a disappointing 19th, blaming traffic. He drives a quietly impressive race, eventually sneaking up on to Heidfeld's tail and challenging for 10th in the closing stages.

Verdict: A promising performance, Liuzzi's misfortune notwithstanding.

Montagny replaces Ide at the last minute, and matches Sato in practice despite a lack of recent mileage and zero experience of the car.

But he spins early in qualifying, struggles to restart after a weight check, and then cancels his second run due to the erroneous red flag. Ends up 22nd, officially 11 seconds slower than teammate Sato.

The Japanese driver somehow thrusts himself up to 12th at the start, but soon falls back - due, in part, to a loss of power. He eventually rejoins Montagny at the tail of the field, where they stay until they retire due to hydraulic failures on laps 29 (Montagny) and 45 (Sato) respectively.

Verdict: At least Sato will be kept on his toes for a while.

Lap by Lap

Lap 1: Starting from pole position for the 10th time in his Formula One career (but the first this season), Fernando Alonso gets away cleanly to lead from fellow front-row starter Michael Schumacher, who repels teammate Felipe Massa.

Jenson Button moves up from sixth to fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Jarno Trulli, Rubens Barrichello, Jacques Villeneuve, Nick Heidfeld, Giancarlo Fisichella, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Webber (up from 19th to 12th), Christian Klien, the fast-starting Takuma Sato, Ralf Schumacher, Scott Speed, Tiago Monteiro, David Coulthard, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Christijan Albers, Scott Speed, Tiago Monteiro, Nico Rosberg and Grand Prix newcomer Franck Montagny.

David Coulthard (Red Bull) tangles with 'teammate' Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) © XPB/LAT

David Coulthard and Vitantonio Liuzzi tangle at the first corner: Liuzzi presses on with a damaged nose, but later spins at Turn 10 - his right rear tyre is absent from the rim. Coulthard pits at the end of the lap. The Safety Car is deployed.

Lap 2: Coulthard pits again.

Lap 3: Race restarts. Alonso pulls 0.7 seconds clear... while Coulthard pulls off to retire.

Lap 4: Raikkonen passes Button for fourth at the chicane.

Lap 5: Michael Schumacher laps in 1:33.903 to cut his deficit to 0.6 seconds. Montoya passes Fisichella for 10th. Speed and Rosberg pass Sato to move up to 15th and 16th respectively.

Lap 6: Alonso responds: 1:33.493.

Lap 7: Monteiro passes Sato for 17th.

Lap 8: Alonso ups his pace again: 1:33.210.

Lap 9: Michael Schumacher sets another new fastest lap: 1:33.066. He remains 0.8 seconds adrift.

Lap 12: Albers passes Sato for 18th.

Lap 13: Webber pulls off to retire from 12th place.

Lap 14: Alonso extends his lead to 1.2 seconds - his biggest margin yet. Massa is 1.9 seconds adrift of Michael Schumacher in third.

Lap 16: Michael Schumacher laps in 1:32.794 and closes to within 0.6 seconds of Alonso.

Lap 17: Alonso pits.

Lap 18: Michael Schumacher sets a new best time for sector one - and then heads for the pits. He rejoins fourth - a few lengths behind Alonso. Raikkonen leads by 9.1 seconds from Button. Massa is now fifth.

Lap 20: Barrichello pits.

Lap 21: Button, Villeneuve and Klien pit.

Lap 22: Heidfeld, Albers and Montagny pit.

Lap 23: Raikkonen and Speed pit. Alonso and Michael Schumacher resume at the head of the field, 0.8 seconds apart. Raikkonen resumes fourth, behind Massa.

Fernando Alonso (Renault) holds off Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) © XPB/LAT

Lap 24: Michael Schumacher laps in an off-the-pace 1:35.095. His deficit grows to 2.1 seconds. Monteiro and Sato pit.

Lap 25: Michael Schumacher is back in the 1:33 seconds, just a tenth off Alonso. Trulli pits.

Lap 26: Fisichella pits.

Lap 27: Montoya pits. He tries to ease ahead of Fisichella as he rejoins - but the Italian holds him off. Both are boxed behind ninth-placed Villeneuve.

Lap 28: Ralf Schumacher stops.

Lap 29: Button and Klien both pull off to retire.

Lap 30: Montagny's F1 debut ends amid a trail of engine smoke.

Lap 31: Alonso leads by 0.9 seconds as the race enters its second half.

Lap 32: Michael Schumacher closes to within 0.6 seconds. Rosberg runs fifth, behind Raikkonen, but has yet to make his first scheduled stop.

Lap 33: Rosberg finally peels in. He rejoins 10th, just ahead of Trulli.

Lap 34: Alonso posts a personal best: 1:33.197. He leads by 0.9 seconds. Massa, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve, Fisichella, Montoya, Rosberg, Trulli, Heidfeld and Speed complete the unlapped runners. Monteiro, Albers and Sato are also still running.

Lap 35: Alonso laps in 1:32.871. He leads by 1.4 seconds.

Lap 36: Alonso posts a 1:32.722, Michael Schumacher a 1:32.544 - the race's fastest lap yet. The gap is 1.2 seconds.

Lap 37: Alonso quickens his pace to 1:32.532... but Michael Schumacher does a 1:32.523.

Lap 38: Alonso pits. Michael Schumacher posts a 1:32.420.

Lap 39: Michael Schumacher sets a new best time for sectors one, two and three. Result: 1:32.099.

Lap 40: Michael Schumacher does a 1:32.167. Massa pits.

Lap 41: Michael Schumacher pits and rejoins comfortably ahead of Alonso. Raikkonen leads. At the back, Albers and Sato pit.

Lap 42: Monteiro pits.

Lap 43: Leader Raikkonen sets a personal best: 1:32.472. Trulli and Speed pit.

Lap 44: Raikkonen comes in. Schumacher leads Alonso by 7.5 seconds. Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve and Fisichella all pit. Fisichella vaults Villeneuve as they rejoin.

Lap 45: Heidfeld pits. Sato pulls into his pit garage to retire.

Lap 46: Michael Schumacher leads by 7.5 seconds from Alonso. Massa, Raikkonen, Montoya, Rosberg, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella and Villeneuve complete the Top 10.

Michael Schumacher wins the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring for Ferrari © LAT

Lap 48: Montoya pits from fifth.

Lap 49: Massa and Raikkonen are drawing gradually closer to Alonso. Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Fisichella are tied as one in sixth to eighth places.

Lap 50: Rosberg pits after a short second stint and slips from fifth to eighth. He rejoins just ahead of Montoya.

Lap 51: Michael Schumacher leads by 9.1 seconds. Alonso is only 2.8 seconds clear of Massa - and Raikkonen continues to close.

Lap 53: Ralf Schumacher and Montoya both pull off to retire with technical problems. Just 13 cars are still running. The top eight - Michael Schumacher, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Fisichella, Rosberg and Villeneuve - are the only cars still on the lead lap.

Lap 56: Raikkonen closes to within 1.1 seconds of Massa... who is 1.8 seconds adrift of Alonso.

Lap 57: Raikkonen moves to within 0.7 seconds of third place.

Lap 60: Michael Schumacher wins by 3.7 seconds from Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Fisichella, Rosberg and Villeneuve.