The Complete 2006 Italian GP Review

As it became increasingly apparent that the impatiently-awaited 'Monza Announcement' would bring news of Michael Schumacher's retirement, the thought occurred that either Ferrari were utterly certain that they would overhaul Fernando Alonso and bring Schumacher an eighth title, or the legendary German was even more daring than we had all thought.

Because despite his record-demolishing success over the past decade, if Schumacher was to walk away from Formula One having just lost his final shoot-out, he would be departing as a defeated man. It wouldn't be a triumphant farewell from a champion who could have gone on and on, but a symbolic ejection of the old hero in favour of a new - faster - generation of superstars, led by Fernando Alonso.

Now he's going, he has to go out on a high. Schumacher absolutely cannot lose this championship.

But after the incredible events of Monza, he looks a lot less likely to lose it.

Confirmation of Schumacher's retirement was always going to be a momentous occasion, but no-one imagined that it would happen against such a dramatic backdrop. Has a single F1 weekend ever generated such an avalanche of significant news stories before?

Topical developments that would normally be guaranteed headline-grabbers were shunted into sidebars and footnotes as the maelstrom unfolded.

But the story that may prompt the most after-shocks is the stewards' decision to penalise Alonso for impeding Felipe Massa in qualifying.

This was 21st century F1 blocking. Once upon a time, cars had to be in close physical proximity for blocking to take place. Now they just have to be close enough for their turbulent air to interfere with the following car's aerodynamics.

Despite FIA president Max Mosley and the stewards' insistance that the telemetry data proved that Alonso's decision not to pull over cost Massa crucial time, the overwhelming reaction to the penalty was bafflement and anger.

There also seemed to be strong mitigating circumstances, as Alonso only left the pits so late because of the delays caused by his earlier puncture. Plus he was hardly dawdling on the line - instead pushing flat-out in a desperate attempt to beat the chequered flag.

"It seems that we have forgotten what qualifying was like up until 2003, when half the field complained of traffic," said Pat Symonds. "We seem to have forgotten what racing is about."

"If this is blocking intentionally, we will have a lot of problems from now on in qualifying," said Alonso.

"I love the sport, I love the fans coming here, a lot of them from Spain, but I don't consider F1 anymore a sport."

Flavio Briatore went further still, strongly insinuating to numerous television reporters that the decision proved that the governing body were steering the championship outcome in Ferrari's favour - although Renault later issued a statement suggesting that Briatore's comments had been "jokey".

This came shortly after an FIA spokesman announced that the Renault chief's remarks "had been noted and were under consideration..."

Alonso deserved so much more than he got from the Italian Grand Prix, but ultimately it was fate that treated him most harshly.

Just as the penalty was a deeply cruel blow after his heroic qualifying lap in an injured car, so the timing of the engine failure - moments after he had made it to third place - made it an even more crushing disappointment.

But in public at least, Alonso remained as indomitable as ever.

"I am not worried about the title," he insisted. "We have three rounds to go, and we will be getting stronger and stronger with new developments for the car, the tyres and the engine."

If those developments can bring Renault right back onto Ferrari's level - and they have been edging increasingly close, even if they didn't (despite Symonds' and Alonso's protestations to the contrary) seem quite there at Monza - then this may yet be a neck-and-neck fight to the finish.

But Ferrari have held the upper hand for nearly three months now, and momentum lies with the red cars. At present, that two-point gap looks far, far too small for comfort.

The Monza weekend was perhaps a microcosm of Schumacher's career - and the blend of genius and controversy that has made him so loved, so hated, and such an integral part of every F1 story of the past 15 years.

A fiercely contentious event prompts a massive wave of paddock and public sympathy for his title rival, and causes suggestions of a pro-Schumacher/Ferrari bias in the governing body.

Then a sumptuous, flawless drive in difficult circumstances - in this case amid all the pressure of the looming announcement and its inevitable repercussions, and pitted against the man who will take his drive - reminds everyone just how special a talent Schumacher possesses.

He will be missed, even by his enemies.

Practice

With the teams having tested at Monza only a week earlier, this was always going to be a relatively uneventful practice. And in any case, with the whole paddock scrabbling around for Michael Schumacher-related information, few were paying much attention to events on track.

Those that were watching on Friday witnessed yet another emphatic practice performance from BMW Sauber, and their young test driver Sebastian Vettel in particular.

Vettel had popped back to his 'day job' in the Formula Three Euroseries between grands prix, but noted that "the step up from Formula Three to Formula One is easier than the other way around..."

It certainly looked that way as he beat teammate Robert Kubica to the top spot in the painfully quiet Friday morning session, then led the Ferraris in the afternoon.

With Nick Heidfeld and Kubica then going second and fourth fastest in third practice, BMW seemed set for a promising weekend. But given the team's reputation for slumping when it mattered, most were reserving judgement until after qualifying.

There was little doubt about Ferrari's speed, though. Felipe Massa and Schumacher had been first and second for much of Friday afternoon, then took first and third on Saturday morning. Title rivals Renault did not appear to be in the same class at this stage.

Honda's nightmarish Friday was the other major story of practice. The team had hurriedly brought out an upgraded engine in a bid to maximise performance before engine specifications are frozen.

But this gamble looked deeply unwise when third driver Anthony Davidson suffered fiery engine failures just minutes into each Friday practice session - the second eruption undermining team boss Nick Fry's suggestion that the initial failure had been caused by "finger trouble" rather than a fault with the new engine.

Race drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello had to sit out the entire day while the cause was investigated, and then reverted to their Turkey specification engines for the weekend - although not running on Friday at least saved them from the added blow of engine change penalties.

Practice round up

Sorted by total laps from all three sessions

Qualifying

Part one

Just one embarrassing early exit for a big name on this occasion, as Mark Webber ended Q1 a perplexed 19th, between the MF1s.

"I've never had too much of a problem with qualifying in the past, but I couldn't get the bite in the car," he said. "We're struggling with pace - just not quick enough. I couldn't get near Nico (Rosberg) on new tyres."

Webber slotted into the unusually large 0.8 second gap that separated the soon-to-be-renamed Midlands. Tiago Monteiro's brake problems accounted for the deficit to his 18th-placed teammate Christijan Albers.

Aguri Suzuki's drivers shared the back row, but the team boss was pleased to see that Takuma Sato had lapped within 2.5 seconds of Q1 pacesetter Michael Schumacher.

Sakon Yamamoto never had a chance to compete, suffering a puncture and subsequent delamination on his first run. The incident scattered chunks of Super Aguri across the pit straight and caused a brief red flag with nine minutes to go.

Much to his surprise given Toro Rosso's lack of power, Scott Speed made it through to Q2. He was exactly 0.1 seconds ahead of teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, who therefore missed the cut.

Part two

"We're firmly at the back of the main group on this type of track," admitted David Coulthard - having neatly illustrated his point by taking 14th ahead of stablemates Scott Speed and Christian Klien.

In fairness Klien - who would turn down Red Bull's offer of a guaranteed Champ Car drive later in the day as he tried to cling onto some form of F1 future - felt he might have achieved more than 16th had he participated in Q2. But shortly after going 15th quickest in Q1 his over-enthusiastic use of the Roggia kerbs bounced the Red Bull into a spin. It stalled and Klien was left with more time to ponder his career options.

Nico Rosberg believed he could get as high as row four on the grid, but instead increasing oversteer in Q2 left him 12th and eliminated, although at least he was significantly ahead of teammate Webber.

He also beat the struggling Ralf Schumacher, who ended up 13th after searching fruitlessly for some balance in his Toyota.

The focus of the session was which one out of Jarno Trulli, Pedro de la Rosa and Jenson Button would find themselves bumped out of the very close top ten.

Button's last gasp jump to seventh meant that Trulli was the unlucky man, even though he was just 0.7 seconds slower than fastest man Felipe Massa.

Also of note in Q2 were Robert Kubica's appearance in second place, and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari-matching sector times on a lap he would abandon due to traffic.

Part three

As it turned out, the fervent Italian crowd wouldn't have a Ferrari pole position to cheer. But they did get to roar in delight when Alonso sustained a left rear puncture near the end of the fuel burning period.

Even though Alonso nursed the car back to the pits as gingerly as he could, the flying rubber ripped off several elements of the Renault's rear aerodynamics. A tentative first quick lap on fresh tyres earned him eighth, but he knew that the final lap would be crucial.

At this stage Kimi Raikkonen held pole ahead of Massa and Schumacher's Ferraris, with Nick Heidfeld continuing BMW's form in fourth.

Alonso left the pit lane with literally just enough time to complete his out lap before the chequered flag. At the same time, Massa began his final attempt to reclaim the top spot for Ferrari.

Massa was ahead of Raikkonen's pole time after the first two sectors, but the final third of the lap was poor and he failed to improve. Exactly why that was would be the source of ferocious debate later in the afternoon...

About a hundred yards up the road, Alonso crossed the line to start his final lap with two seconds to go. Despite what Pat Symonds summarised as "quite severe damage to the aerodynamics at the rear of the car", the champion leapt to fifth with a heroic lap.

Meanwhile Schumacher found four-tenths on his final run and grabbed provisional pole - only for Raikkonen to respond with a lap 0.002 seconds quicker and reclaim the position, surviving an error in the Ascaris along the way.

That put Massa down to third, which became fourth when a sensational lap from Heidfeld earned BMW Sauber's best grid position yet - third.

Kubica backed up his teammate's achievement with seventh place, but it could have been rather better but for errors on his last run.

Given Honda's Friday disaster, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were quite satisfied with sixth and ninth, especially given the monumental fuel load that Barrichello turned out to be carrying.

Giancarlo Fisichella was also well-laden in 10th - which was less than Renault had hoped for from him.

The 0.8 second gap between Raikkonen on pole and McLaren teammate Pedro de la Rosa in eighth suggested that the team might have opted for split strategies. Not so on this occasion, as the race would reveal that the lighter McLaren was actually the slower one on Saturday.

Qualifying results

Post-Qualifying

Ferrari would subsequently mount a protest against Alonso and Renault, arguing that the world champion had impeded Massa on his final lap.

"I lost at least three-tenths," insisted Massa, who ended up 0.220 seconds from pole.

That Massa's final sector on his final lap had been slow was not in dispute. Neither was the fact that Alonso had not moved aside for the Ferrari.

But most in the paddock felt that Alonso had been sufficiently far ahead to stay out of Massa's way, especially as he was driving flat-out to beat the chequered flag. If anything, Renault argued, Alonso's presence was a bonus for Massa.

"Massa was 100 metres behind Alonso so he got a nice tow and I don't see it as a hindrance," argued Pat Symonds.

"He lifted in the middle of the corner. To me it looked like a mistake but he claimed he was losing downforce."

However, the stewards agreed with Ferrari's assessment of the situation. While conceding that Alonso's actions "may not have been deliberate", they deleted his best three qualifying times, putting the champion back to 10th on the grid and triggering a huge controversy.

The Race

"We had a genuine winning strategy staring from fifth and it will be a lot harder from 10th," said the furious Pat Symonds on Saturday evening.

"Not only because it is so hard to overtake but because we are in the middle of the pack and a lot happens there on the first lap."

In the event, the scramble through the opening corners saw plenty of excitement and close racing, but no significant contact.

After some middling starts recently, Kimi Raikkonen was pleasantly surprised to convert his pole position into a clear lead going into the first chicane, while Nick Heidfeld again demonstrated the potency of BMW's start programme by immediately blasting past Michael Schumacher.

The Ferrari came back at him on the outside line under braking, and Heidfeld chose to be generous and let Schumacher take second back on the exit.

As he did so, Heidfeld found himself losing another place to teammate Robert Kubica, who had jumped ahead of Jenson Button and Felipe Massa when the lights went out.

Heidfeld had dirtied his tyres while dicing with Schumacher and immediately came under pressure from Massa, who passed the BMW between the Lesmos. Button surged past too before the Ascaris, leaving Heidfeld at the mercy of Alonso.

The world champion had made a fine start to his recovery mission - passing Rubens Barrichello off the line, then out-braking Giancarlo Fisichella into the Rettifilio.

Having despatched Pedro de la Rosa at the Roggia, Alonso swarmed all over the back of Heidfeld through the Ascaris then drew alongside on the way out of the Parabolica.

The BMW and Renault were wheel to wheel all the way down the pits straight, with Alonso ahead approaching the Rettifilio but Heidfeld using his impressive straightline speed to stay in contact.

Both drivers braked desperately late, with Alonso slewing across the grass and almost collecting Button as he rejoined substantially ahead of Heidfeld.

Cutting the corner might have been grounds for a penalty, but a precedent had been set when Schumacher was allowed to get away with similar behaviour while fending off de la Rosa at the Hungaroring. The stewards therefore chose not to deprive Alonso of his sixth place.

Any relief at the lack of a corner-cutting penalty was tempered by frustration as Alonso then found himself trapped behind Button for the entire opening stint.

This was particularly galling given the pace that Raikkonen and Schumacher were setting at the front.

The future and present Ferrari stars consistently matched each other's times, running 1.5 seconds apart and leaving third-placed Kubica behind at around 0.7 seconds per lap.

This was bad news for Massa too, as he continually probed down the inside of the BMW under braking, but was never close enough to make a move.

Button and Alonso sat a couple of seconds behind this battle, with Heidfeld lurking in their wake.

Many suspected that Raikkonen's pole position owed something to a modest fuel load - and sure enough the McLaren pitted on lap 15 and dropped back to seventh.

But - reassuringly for McLaren - Schumacher only had two more laps of fuel in his Ferrari.

That was still enough for Schumacher to put on a spurt and emerge about a second ahead of the McLaren.

Their pit stops allowed Kubica to move into the race lead for the first time in his short F1 career. Incredibly, he would stay there for another five laps, as the BMWs turned out to be the heaviest cars in the top six.

In fact, Heidfeld's third place on the grid - 0.2 seconds behind Raikkonen and Schumacher - now looked ultra-impressive as it emerged that he was six and four laps heavier than the McLaren and Ferrari respectively.

The BMWs' form made things look even tougher for Alonso. He pitted, along with Massa, on lap 19, but by now the one stoppers were getting involved as well.

Massa managed to scrabble ahead of Jarno Trulli at the first chicane and put the Toyota between himself and Alonso.

Worse was to follow for the champion, as Button emerged from his stop next time around still ahead of Alonso. The Renault quickly passed the Honda while Button's tyres were still cold, but the time this cost Alonso allowed Heidfeld to vault them both in the pits.

Finally some luck came Alonso's way when Heidfeld was awarded a pit lane speeding penalty and peeled out of the way four laps later. Now he just had to wait patiently until one-stoppers Fisichella, Barrichello and Trulli came in, then he could resume the chase of Massa and Kubica.

At the front, Schumacher edged away from Raikkonen by the odd tenth, establishing a narrow but secure 2.5 second lead.

The rest fell nearly half a minute adrift in the middle stint. Kubica's late first stop meant that there was no danger of him dropping behind Massa during the initial pit sequence, but the Ferrari gradually reduced what began as a five second gap and appeared on the BMW's tail as the final stops approached.

Alonso was now creeping into podium contention as well. Although he remained a few tenths slower than Schumacher and Raikkonen's dominant pace, he looked quick enough to get ahead of Massa and Kubica if the pit stops worked in his favour.

Raikkonen came in on lap 38, one lap before Schumacher, whose team chose to bring Massa in on the very same lap - one Ferrari clearing the pit lane as the second arrived. This tactic did not quite work, as Massa's stop proved a critical 1.3 seconds slower.

Both Kubica and Alonso stayed out for two more laps, and consequently pulled out enough of a gap to leapfrog ahead of Massa.

Even better for Renault, Alonso exited the pit lane absolutely parallel with Kubica, having homed in on him once Massa stopped, then got on the power a moment sooner and grabbed an unlikely third place.

Alonso's damage limitation mission seemed complete. Admittedly Schumacher's imminent victory would reduce the points gap to eight, but that was a manageable cushion with three races remaining and Renault much closer to Ferrari's pace than they had been three rounds earlier.

Then it all went heartbreakingly wrong for Renault again. Two laps after securing third, Alonso suffered a massive engine failure approaching the Rettifilio. The crowd erupted with delight, while Alonso - seething but defiant - could only watch as Schumacher prepared to carve 10 points from his advantage.

There was one tiny piece of consolation for Renault - Massa locked up in surprise as Alonso's engine exploded, flat-spotting a tyre and bouncing over the grass. He had to pit and dropped out of the points, reducing the harm done to Renault's constructors' title hopes.

Massa's incident ended any chance of him snatching third place from Kubica and giving Ferrari an almost perfect podium line-up of current and 2007 drivers.

But that slight imperfection made no difference to the emotional scenes that followed. Schumacher crossed the finish line eight seconds ahead of Raikkonen, who had gone into engine conservation mode after the second pit stops.

Before the slowing down lap was even complete, Ferrari issued a press release confirming everyone's expectations - Schumacher would retire from F1 at the end of the 2006 season.

Suddenly what had been a hugely significant race for the championship battle became just the backdrop to the biggest motorsport story in over a decade.

The podium ceremony was delayed as Schumacher celebrated victory with his mechanics more passionately than ever.

The press conference was delayed as Schumacher and Jean Todt embraced at the front of the podium and soaked up the adulation from the crowd.

The standard question and answer business of the press conference was delayed as Schumacher began an eloquent, heartfelt monologue explaining his decision and paying tribute to his family, his team, and his teammate, and even apologising for not having announced his plans sooner.

Any journalists who tried to quiz Schumacher about the events of the race itself had little joy. His focus was now on both the future - both his fight for one last title and then life after F1 - and the past, in the form of his whole remarkable career.

Raikkonen was also looking to the future and spoke more about his impending switch to Ferrari than McLaren's overdue resurgence.

But for Kubica, the focus was very much on the present moment, and his remarkable first podium in his third ever F1 race.

Despite flat-spotting his tyres while out-braking Massa at the start, he had held his own in rarefied company all afternoon, looking very comfortable in the lead, coped with a face-full of Renault oil and smoke rather better than Massa, and totally overshadowed his much more experienced teammate. An excellent day's work.

"Some of my team told me they wanted to see me on the podium before we went to the grid," said Kubica. "I took it like a joke, but it happened..."

Alonso and Massa's late tribulations gave the rest of the top ten an unexpected look.

Fisichella's one stop strategy eventually took him to fourth. He had lost out to Barrichello at the start while giving Alonso space, but repassed the Honda within a lap. After that Fisichella had little company until Button charged onto his tail in the closing stages.

Lacking power after switching to the older engine, Button could not keep up with the leaders and was left vulnerable to the one-stoppers. But while he fell behind Fisichella, he did at least manage to beat Barrichello and Trulli.

Although his strategy did not quite pay the expected dividends in the race, Barrichello's satisfaction with eighth on the grid looked well justified when it became clear that he had been carrying 30 laps' worth of fuel.

In light of the dismal start to their event, fifth and sixth was a great result for Honda. Their Japanese rivals Toyota also achieved more than expected, as Trulli ended an anonymous weekend with a strong seventh place, fending off the recovering Heidfeld and Massa after an increasingly intense late race struggle.

Mark Webber was another man who could take some consolation from a proactive race performance.

He quickly made up for his dreadful 19th on the grid with an assertive first lap charge - making up five positions in the opening corners, then overtaking David Coulthard on lap two.

After that, Webber had a very lonely afternoon, but retirements and strategy quirks moved the Williams up to 10th - "which is where the car is currently at," according to Sam Michael.

All four Red Bull-owned cars were in close company throughout the race, with the unhappy Ralf Schumacher trapped amongst them after making a poor start.

Michael Schumacher salutes the tifosi © Reuters

Christian Klien used an enormous initial fuel load and 35 lap opening stint to jump from the back of this queue to the front at the flag, 4.6 seconds ahead of 12th placed Coulthard, who finished with both Toro Rossos and Schumacher right on his tail.

Schumacher passed Liuzzi on the second lap, then spent the entire afternoon trapped behind Scott Speed, before being repassed by the determined Liuzzi five laps from home.

Takuma Sato started from the pit lane in the spare Super Aguri after pre-race hydraulic gremlins, then had to limp around with a delaminating floor. He finished a gutsy 16th, ahead of Christijan Albers.

The newly renamed Spyker MF1 team had a pretty depressing race. Both drivers made poor starts, bounced over the grass at the first chicane, and then got cross with each other after a close call at the same spot a few laps later.

They then got into their stride, passed Sakon Yamamoto and actually started gaining on the Red Bull crowd before both hitting trouble - Albers with a puncture and subsequent clutch problems, Tiago Monteiro with braking issues that would eventually convince him to pull out.

Yamamoto continued his run of non-finishes thanks to a hydraulic fault.

Also disappearing early were Nico Rosberg and de la Rosa.

The German was particularly unfortunate as he had been holding 11th ahead of Trulli when a driveshaft gave way after just nine laps.

By contrast De la Rosa was already having a mediocre race when his ailing engine finally failed on lap 21. His early (lap 14) pit stop had dropped him from eighth to 16th and it was hard to see even his planned long middle stint bringing the Spaniard back into the points from there.

So that meant a total of five retirements in the race - but all the attention was on a retirement of a very different kind.

Having taken a superb victory on his adopted home ground, in front of an absolutely adoring crowd, Schumacher could not have hoped for better circumstances in which to announce his impending departure.

In fact, a race like this would have been the perfect finale for his career. He clearly wants to go out 'on top', and it would be hard to get much higher. But Schumacher cannot walk away yet - he has one more goal to achieve, and a rival who is now more determined than ever to stop him from reaching it...

Race results

53 laps; 306.720km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1h14:51.975
 2.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  +     8.046
 3.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (M)  +    26.414
 4.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  +    32.045
 5.  Button        Honda                (M)  +    32.685
 6.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  +    42.409
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +    44.662
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  +    45.309
 9.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +    45.955
10.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  +  1:12.602
11.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
13.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +     1 lap
14.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +     1 lap
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    2 laps
17.  Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)  +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:22.559

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)    45
Alonso        Renault              (M)    44
de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)    21
Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    23
Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)    10


World Championship standings, round 15:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso       108        1.  Ferrari              168
 2.  M.Schumacher 106        2.  Renault              165
 3.  Massa         62        3.  McLaren-Mercedes      97
 4.  Fisichella    57        4.  Honda                 65
 5.  Raikkonen     57        5.  BMW-Sauber            33
 6.  Button        40        6.  Toyota                30
 7.  Montoya       26        7.  Red Bull-Ferrari      16
 8.  Barrichello   25        8.  Williams-Cosworth     10
 9.  Heidfeld      20        9.  Toro Rosso-Cosworth    1
10.  R.Schumacher  18
11.  Coulthard     14
12.  de la Rosa    14
13.  Trulli        12
14.  Villeneuve     7
15.  Kubica         6
16.  Webber         6
17.  Rosberg        4
18.  Klien          2
19.  Liuzzi         1

Team-by-Team

A dramatic qualifying performance sees Alonso earn fifth on the grid at the very last moment despite damaged aerodynamics from an earlier puncture, only for the stewards to delete his best times as a punishment for allegedly impeding Massa. He starts 10th, quickly moves up to sixth then gets stuck behind Button. A strong middle stint brings him into contention for third, which he reaches with an excellent final pit stop, but then a rare Renault engine failure ends Alonso's race and does his title prospects a lot of harm. Fisichella qualifies 10th on a heavier fuel load, and drives a quiet but productive race to fourth, gaining places via his one stop strategy.

Verdict: Deserved better.

Raikkonen takes pole and leads Schumacher in the early stages. He drops to second during the first pit stops but hangs onto the Ferrari and keeps the pressure up until easing off in the final laps. De la Rosa can only manage seventh on the grid, although the team praise his effort and tellingly highlight the fact that his engine is on its second race. He runs eighth at first, falls to 16th with an early (planned) pit stop, and then retires when the engine fails on lap 20.

Verdict: A welcome return to frontrunning contention - but can they repeat it elsewhere?

Schumacher starts second, takes the lead at the first pit stops then does enough to resist Raikkonen. Takes a commanding win and has the perfect stage for his retirement announcement. Massa is only fourth on the grid and insists that Alonso cost him pole. Loses out to Kubica at the start and spends most of the race challenging the BMW. Damages a tyre when he locks up while trying to avoid Alonso's engine failure. Has to pit and ends up ninth.

Verdict: A momentous weekend in so many ways.

Trulli and Schumacher lack qualifying speed and start 11th and 13th. While Trulli uses a one stop strategy and good race pace to progress to seventh and salvage a couple of points, Schumacher makes a bad start and spends the whole race grappling with Toro Rossos. Loses out to Liuzzi near the end and takes a distant 15th.

Verdict: One driver gets the maximum out of a difficult weekend, the other doesn't...

Webber cannot get any speed out of the car and starts a lowly 19th, but an aggressive opening lap brings him up to 14th and into contention. Eventually finishes a respectable 10th. Rosberg is comfortably faster in qualifying and starts 12th. Probably destined for points, but a driveshaft fails after just nine laps.

Verdict: Still lacking both reliability and consistency.

Davidson's double engine failure on Friday convinces the team to return to the old specification V8s for the weekend, and means that Button and Barrichello miss two-thirds of practice. Nevertheless, they start sixth and eighth. Button holds off Alonso early on but can't keep the pace up. Loses out to the one-stopping Fisichella but still finishes fifth, challenging the Renault in the final laps. Barrichello falls back initially with his heavy fuel load, but the strategy helps him to sixth at the flag.

Verdict: Actually a fine result given their dreadful start to the weekend.

Klien makes it to Q2 but can't participate as he spun and stalled late in Q1. He therefore starts 16th. An amazingly long first stint jumps him ahead of the rest of the midfield and he finishes 11th. Coulthard qualifies 14th and fends off the Toro Rossos and Schumacher to take 12th after a sometimes spectacular battle.

Verdict: Waiting for 2007.

An amazing performance: Vettel dominates Friday practice, Heidfeld qualifies third, Kubica starts sixth despite errors on his hot laps. Kubica then jumps to third at the start, leads for five laps during the first pit stop sequence, copes brilliantly with pressure from Massa and Alonso and takes a stunning first podium finish in only his third grand prix. Heidfeld has a scrappy afternoon - dropping to seventh in the opening laps. He repasses Alonso at the first pit stops but picks up a pit lane speeding penalty. Recovers well to score a single point.

Verdict: Superb effort by the team and Kubica, Heidfeld undermines his good work in qualifying with a messy race performance.

The team's Dutch takeover is finally completed and Mike Gascoyne is announced as a new recruit. Ironically all this happens on MF1's least impressive weekend in some months. Albers and Monteiro qualify 18th and 20th, both have scruffy opening laps, and both hit mechanical problems - Albers losing a lot of time with a puncture and then a clutch problem in the pits, Monteiro eventually retiring due to brake concerns.

Verdict: Future looks brighter, but lots of work to be done on this evidence.

Speed and Liuzzi qualify 16th and 17th, race with their Red Bull cousins and Ralf Schumacher all afternoon. They finish 13th and 14th, between Coulthard and Schumacher, and have the odd exciting wheel to wheel moment along the way. Liuzzi's handling wilts after contact with Coulthard, but he still passes Schumacher in the closing laps.

Verdict: Simultaneously disappointing (well off the pace) an encouraging (racing in good company).

Usual back of the grid spots for Sato and Yamamoto, but at least the former is reasonably close to the pace. Yamamoto has a tyre blow and barely takes part in qualifying. He passes the MF1s at the start, drops back to last again soon afterwards, then hits hydraulic problems. The same fault forces Sato to start from the pits in the T-car. Despite a major issue with the car's floor, he finishes 16th. Montagny goes 10th fastest on Friday in the third car.

Verdict: Splashes of promise amongst a sea of problems.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: On pole position for the third time in four races - and the 11th in his Formula One career - Kimi Raikkonen gets away cleanly to head Michael Schumacher towards the first chicane.

Kimi Raikkonen leads the field through the chicane at the start of the Italian GP © Reuters

Nick Heidfeld gets past Schumacher, too, but the world championship challenger retaliates at the exit of the first turn. Heidfeld loses momentum and his fast-starting team-mate Robert Kubica moves up to third. Felipe Massa and Jenson Button pass Heidfeld before the end of the lap, too, to lie fourth and fifth.

Heidfeld runs sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso, Pedro de la Rosa, Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg, Jarno Trulli, David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Scott Speed, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien, Sakon Yamamoto, Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers. Takuma Sato starts late from the pits.

Lap 2: Raikkonen extends his lead to 1.4s. Alonso scrabbles past Heidfeld at the first chicane and goes bouncing over the kerbs, almost hitting Button as he rejoins. Webber passes Coulthard for 13th. R Schumacher passes Liuzzi for 16th. Towards the tail of the field the MF1s pass Yamamoto.

Lap 3: Albers passes team-mate Monteiro for 19th.

Lap 5: Raikkonen laps in 1m 23.300s - the race's fastest yet. Third-placed Kubica is keeping Massa at bay. Sato passes Yamamoto for 21st.

Lap 7: The two leaders are 1.0s apart.

Lap 9: Nico Rosberg, running 11th, slows dramatically and crawls to the pits. He retires.

Lap 10: Raikkonen laps in 1m 23.167s and leads by 1.4s. Alonso, sixth, is 15.4s behind the leader.

Lap 11: Raikkonen edges a little farther ahead: 1m 22.980s. The first two are well clear of Kubica.

Lap 12: Raikkonen goes faster again, 1m 22.559s, to lead by 1.7s.

Lap 14: Eighth-placed de la Rosa makes the first scheduled stop.

Lap 15: Raikkonen peels in for fuel and tyres. M Schumacher leads.

Honda await the pitstop of Button © Reuters

Lap 16: M Schumacher is 17.1s clear of Kubica, with Raikkonen down to seventh.

Lap 17: M Schumacher pits and rejoins sixth, ahead of Raikkonen. Kubica makes history as the first Pole to lead a grand prix.

Lap 18: De la Rosa passes Liuzzi for 15th. Yamamoto pits to retire.

Lap 19: Massa and Albers pit.

Lap 20: Button pits and rejoins just in front of Alonso.

Lap 21: Heidfeld pits. Alonso passes Button. De la Rosa pulls off to retire.

Lap 22: Kubica pits and drops to fourth. M Schumacher leads by a couple of seconds.

Lap 24: Heidfeld is handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pits. Speed passes Coulthard. R Schumacher locks up massively at the first chicane.

Lap 25: Heidfeld serves his penalty and loses three places. Sato pits.

Lap 28: Massa runs wide onto the dirt but doesn't lose much time. R Schumacher and Monteiro pit.

Lap 29: Trulli and Speed pit.

Lap 30: Barrichello, Webber and Liuzzi all stop.

Lap 32: Coulthard refuels.

Lap 33: Heidfeld passes Fisichella for seventh.

Lap 35: Klien is the final driver to make his first stop.

Lap 36: M Schumacher leads Raikkonen by 2.0s. Kubica is third from Massa, Alonso, Button, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Barrichello, Trulli and Webber. Klien is a lapped 12th, from Coulthard, Speed, R Schumacher, Liuzzi, Monteiro, Sato and Albers.

Fernando Alonso loses the engine of his Renault R26 © XPB/LAT

Lap 38: Raikkonen is first to make a second scheduled stop. He rejoins just in front of the Kubica, Massa, Alonso train.

Lap 39: M Schumacher pits. He keeps the lead. Massa peels in, too.

Lap 40: Heidfeld and Monteiro pit.

Lap 41: Kubica, Alonso and Button all pit. Kubica and Alonso rejoin as one, but Alonso gets ahead at the pit exit. Both resume in front of Massa.

Lap 43: Alonso's engine blows on the approach to the first chicane. Massa flat-spots his front right and skates wide.

Lap 44: Massa pits for fresh tyres. Monteiro retires to the pits.

Lap 46: M Schumacher leads Raikkonen by 6.8s. Kubica, Fisichella, Button, Barrichello, Trulli and Heidfeld complete the top eight. Massa lies ninth.

Lap 51: Trulli is working hard to keep Heidfeld at bay. Massa is catching them both.

Lap 53: M Schumacher wins his 90th F1 grand prix, by 8.0s from Raikkonen. He reduces Alonso's championship lead to two points with three races to go. Kubica takes third from Fisichella, Button, Barrichello and Trulli.