2006 Brazilian GP: Massa wins, Alonso crowned world champion again

At the 2006 season finale in São Paulo, Felipe Massa won from pole position in his Ferrari and led the entire race bar two laps. By finishing second, Fernando Alonso sealed his second consecutive world title with Renault. Jenson Button drove his Honda from 14th on the grid to third. The big story of the afternoon, however, belonged to Michael Schumacher: after a puncture in his farewell race for Ferrari he dropped almost a lap down, then fought his way through the entire field to finish fourth. You can find all the results and data on our 2006 Brazilian GP race page.

Alonso arrived in Brazil with a ten-point lead over Schumacher, so the Ferrari star needed a small miracle. His hopes faded further in qualifying: in the final session his car suddenly lost fuel pressure on the out lap, Schumacher came to a halt and had to start from tenth. Button was also caught out in qualifying, with a fault in the electronic traction control keeping him out of the top ten.

At the front were Massa, Kimi Räikkönen in the McLaren, Jarno Trulli in the Toyota and Alonso in fourth on the grid.

Massa defended his lead into the first corner ahead of Räikkönen and Trulli, while Schumacher gained places at the start. Still on the opening lap, there was an intra-team clash at Williams: Nico Rosberg hit his teammate Mark Webber, tearing off his rear wing. Rosberg then crashed out in his damaged car, and the wreck and debris brought out the Safety Car. Both Williams retired, officially because of the collision.

The race went green again on lap 6. Straight afterwards came the moment that ended Schumacher's last title hopes: attacking Giancarlo Fisichella, his left rear tyre made contact with the Renault's front wing. Schumacher crawled back to the pits with the puncture, took on fresh tyres and a big load of fuel, and rejoined in last place, almost a lap behind Massa.

At the front, Massa had everything under control. Only around his first pit stop did Alonso take the lead for two laps, and from lap 27 the Brazilian was back in front. According to grandprix.com, Massa already led by 24 seconds on lap 38, and by 26 seconds on lap 55. Massa made his second stop on lap 52, Alonso two laps later. It changed nothing in the order. Incidentally, Massa taking a Brazilian flag from a fan after the race breached FIA rules, but he was never penalised for it.

With the extra fuel on board, Schumacher was able to run a long middle stint and only needed one more pit stop. He made the most of the others' stops and his own overtaking moves: first he got past Robert Doornbos, then Nick Heidfeld, who had pitted with a damaged front wing. After his second stop he got the better of Rubens Barrichello around lap 50.

In the closing stages Fisichella was ahead of him. On lap 62 the Italian braked too late into Turn 1, ran across the grass, and Schumacher went through. That set up a thrilling duel with Räikkönen. Yellow flags prevented an early attack, and a mistake by the Finn at Turn 10 was not yet enough. Finally Schumacher pulled alongside on the approach to Turn 1 and forced him onto the dirty line; according to grandprix.com he was fourth on lap 68. On top of that, he set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:12.162. It was not enough for the title, but Ferrari gave its record world champion a fitting farewell.

• Nico Rosberg (Williams), retired on lap 1: collision with Webber, then went off.
• Mark Webber (Williams), after 1 lap: collision, rear wing torn off.
• Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), after 9 laps, and Jarno Trulli (Toyota), after 10 laps: both suffered the same rear suspension failure. That also ended Toyota's chance of snatching fifth place in the constructors' championship from BMW Sauber.
• David Coulthard (Red Bull), after 14 laps: gearbox failure.
• Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber), after 63 laps: first he damaged his front wing in a collision with Vitantonio Liuzzi after his first stop. Later his suspension broke at the end of the main straight and Heidfeld spun off at Turn 1. He was nevertheless classified 17th.

The biggest gainer was Button, who made up eleven places. He ran in the top three for a long time and, according to grandprix.com, passed Räikkönen for third on lap 28. Takuma Sato was also strong: he gained nine places and, in tenth, scored Super Aguri's first top-ten finish. Doornbos made up ten positions but only finished twelfth. Pedro de la Rosa went from 12th to 8th on a one-stop strategy, earning a point.

On the losing side were Toyota: Trulli retired from third on the grid, his teammate from seventh. Räikkönen started from the front row and lost fourth place to Schumacher at the end.

With his second place, Alonso ended the season on 134 points, with Schumacher on 121. That made the Spaniard the youngest double world champion in history. Massa finished third in the championship with 80 points, followed by Fisichella (72) and Räikkönen (65). In the constructors' championship, Renault won with 206 points, narrowly ahead of Ferrari (201). BMW Sauber held on to fifth place by 36 points to 35 against Toyota. You can find the full 2006 championship standings on our site.

For Massa it was his second Grand Prix win after the Turkish GP. Above all, though, it was the first time since Ayrton Senna in 1993 that a Brazilian had won his home race in São Paulo. At the same time, an era came to an end that day: Schumacher contested his final race for Ferrari and signed off with one of his finest comeback drives.