Australia: Lap by Lap(ish)

By Phil Giles
April 2 2006

Race notes from my observations of the times and TV coverage here in the UK. If you've not yet seen the race, don't read this story. Put your fingers in your ears and go La La La La until the replay later on today. It's a stormer!

Montoya spins on the parade lap. Fisichella stalls on the grid.

Lap One. Klien, Massa and Rosberg have a coming together. Midlands launch control still doesn't appear to work and both of the Super Aguri's have got in front of the Midland Boys.

Always good to see a Ferrari in the wall.

Midland must have a heavy fuel load on board as their times are slower than the Aguri.

Klien out on lap 4 after having been thumped earlier on in lap 1

Safety car out to clear debris from Klien's crash

Monteiro is being badly compromised by Ide in the Super Aguri. He's six seconds behind Albers.

The Safety car should bring him closer. Hopefully he can get past at the restart.

Monteiro pits on lap 8. Changing the strategy to a two stopper. Hopefully this will get him past Ide in the next round of pit stops.

TV shows Albers all over the back of DC in the Red Bull. Tiago has jumped Ide and is immediately five seconds faster.

Five cars behind Sato are all within 3 hundredths of a second per lap. Sato is the slowest of them all, there is just no way past him.

James Allen suggests that Sato is faster in the Aguri. Martin puts him right in that Sato is slower, the others can't get past due to the dirty air off the back of the car.

Lap 16. Tiago sets a 1:31.854 much faster than Sato.

Albers still five seconds in front of Tiago.

Montoya pits on lap 18.

Albers pits on lap 22. Mark Webber goes out with an engine problem.

Sato pits. This should clear Midland to put in some fast laps.

Ide pits again. lap 24. Christijan appears to be stuck behind Sato in 16th, Tiago has jumped up to 14th. 3 seconds behind Coulthard.

Tiago puts in a 1:30.255 on lap 25 Christijan is 0.3 of a second behind Sato. Sato is 22 seconds behind Tiago.

Albers is dropping back from Sato? Lap 27 does he have a problem? Almost a second slower.

Nope! Lap 28 Christijan has passed Sato. Caught him and has put over a second on him.

Monteiro falling away from DC but still in 14th place.

DC pits. Tiago should gain a place.

Lap 30 Rubens Pits. Tiago up to 12th, 14 seconds behind Scott Speed.

Lap 32 Rubens is 7 seconds behind Tiago.

Schumacher out. Lap 33. Hits a bump on the last corner and plants the second Ferrari into the wall. Midland pit for fuel now. Safety car out for third time.

Liuzi out on lap 38. The Safety car is out for the fourth time.

Plenty of time for other cars to drop out! Could Midland score here today!??

Midland could be criticised as the cars are 4th and 5th on the road. (Although at the bottom of the timing sheets). Toyota have asked Midland to get out of the way.

Instead Ralf "nerfs" the Midland of Tiago out of the way. Tiago takes the long way around turn 3

Lap 41 Tiago Retires. Only the second retirement in his F1 career, the car is pushed into the garage. He may have been thumped by Ralf Schumacher causing a problem.

Christijan is still running one lap down, 85 seconds away from David Coulthard on lap 44.

Montoya retires on Lap 46. Hits the same bump as Schumacher at the start finish straight. The car wobbled a bit then slowed to a halt on the pit straight. The car apparently turned itself off.

Christijan is now up to 11th place, still a lap down.

Fisi looks all over Button for 4th place.

Christijan sets a 1:29.238 on lap 55.

One lap left to go and Christijan should keep his 11th place. A grand effort from Christijan, keeping the car on the tarmac in a difficult race for some big names. What an absolute cracker of a Grand Prix.

Alonso wins. Kimi second, Ralf Schumacher third.

Jenson Button's Honda blows up on the last but one corner. Fisi takes fifth place. Jenson goes from Hero to zero, drops to 10th place stopping just yards from the finish line.

Right, I'm going back to bed! Race Re-Run starts on ITV1 at 1.05pm. May be awake for that!