Fernando Alonso began his title defence in the best possible fashion with a superb victory in the season-opening of the 2006 season

But, unlike the early races of last year, the Spaniard didn’t have things all his own way – not by a long shot. Instead he was made to work hard all afternoon by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, whose pace signalled a major Ferrari revival this year.
The race-long duel was finally decided when Alonso emerged from his final pit stop just metres in front.

One of the best performance’s of the day came from Kimi Raikkonen, who charged through from the back of the grid, after failing to qualify, to claim the final podium spot.

The McLaren driver just held off a rampaging Jenson Button, who gave a magnificent exhibition of overtaking as he fought to make amends for a poor start after he was left standing on the grid due to a slipping clutch.

Bahrain Grand Prix result - 57 laps

1. ALONSO Renault 1h29m46.205s
2. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari +1.2s
3. RAIKKONEN McLaren +19.4s
4. BUTTON Honda +20.0s
5. MONTOYA McLaren +37.0s
6. WEBBER Williams +41.9s
7. ROSBERG Williams +1m03.0s
8. KLIEN Red Bull +1m06.8s
9. MASSA Ferrari +1m09.9s
10. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m15.5s
11. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1m26.0s
12. HEIDFELD BMW +1 lap
13. SPEED Toro Rosso +1 lap
14. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
15. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
16. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
17. MONTEIRO Midland +2 laps
18. SATO Super Aguri +4 laps

DNF. IDE Super Aguri +22 laps
DNF. VILLENEUVE BMW +28 laps
DNF. FISICHELLA Renault +36 laps
DNF. ALBERS Midland +57 laps

Fastest lap: Rosberg 1m 32.408s

The next race takes place in Malaysia this weekend

(this article was taken from cruisemidlands.com)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 17th, 2006 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Auto Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.