Melbourne, 2nd April 2006 - Fernando Alonso continued Renault's relentless domination of the 2006 Grand Prix season with victory in Sunday's action-packed Australian Grand Prix. Shortened to 57 laps when Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella stalled on the grid, the race featured no less than four safety car periods which cut Alonso's lead to nothing each time. But a damaged nose section and greater difficulty getting his tyres up to temperature meant that second place Kimi Raikkonen was unable to challenge the Renault driver.

With only 13 finishers, it was a race of attrition which claimed both Ferraris. Felipe Massa was eliminated in one of several first lap incidents - which also seemed to involve either RBRs or STRs - and Michael Schumacher lost control of his car just after half distance, having run as high as fourth from tenth on the grid. He crashed heavily out of the final corner.

Massa, Nico Rosberg and Jarno Trulli were all eliminated on the first lap in various incidents, which brought out the safety car for the first time. By this stage, poleman Button was leading from Alonso. Then came the two McLarens of Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya (even though the latter spun pre-grid when warming up his tyres). Ralf Schumacher was next from local hero Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld and Michael Schumacher.

The second safety car came out on lap seven after Christian Klien lost control of his Red Bull Racing and crashed into turn three. At the restart, it was Raikkonen's turn to overtake Button for second place, although the pair did touch and the McLaren driver now had to cope not only with a flat-spotted tyre which then caused the front wing to break up. Button again slipped back to be challenged by Montoya. Webber was next from Ralf Schumacher and then came Heidfeld.

On lap 18, Montoya was the first to make a scheduled stop with Button coming in on the next lap and losing another place to the Colombian. Alonso came in on lap 20, Raikkonen came in a lap later all of which left Webber in the lead. But just two laps later the Williams ground to a halt with transmission failure to the disappointment of the crowd. Heidfeld and Michael Schumacher were the last to pit on lap 25.

At half distance, Alonso led Raikkonen by 15s with Montoya in third place 7.5s further back. Heidfeld had managed to maintain fourth place with Button in fifth, not far ahead of Michael Schumacher. Villeneuve was next from Ralf Schumacher.

At the end of lap 33, Michael Schumacher lost control of his car coming out of the final corner when it hit a bump after the Ferrari ran wide, and he crashed heavily. Out came the safety car for the third time and everyone now dived for the pits. That was particularly a problem for Montoya who queued up behind teammate Raikkonen who had his front wing changed. He dropped to sixth but when the safety car went in, he overtook Button and Heidfeld to run fourth, only for the safety car to come out again when Villeneuve made contact with Liuzzi, sending the Italian into the wall.

The man who gained most, however, was Ralf Schumacher, who found himself in third place behind Alonso and Raikkonen and ahead of Montoya. Heidfeld was next, with 15 laps to go, ahead of Button and Fisichella.

Montoya dropped out when he went wide out of the final corner and hit Schumacher's bump which cut the electrics, so that Heidfeld moved up to fourth. In the closing stages, Button was in fifth, but being pushed by Fisichella on the last lap when his engine blew coming out of the final corner. That promoted Fisichella to fifth, Villeneuve to sixth just ahead of Barrichello, who was less than 1.9s ahead of Scott Speed in the V10 STR.

He, in turn, was just ahead of David Coulthard, but Speed was given a 25s penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag, and a $5000 for subsequently swearing at another competitor during the stewards' hearing. Coulthard was therefore classified eighth, Speed lost his final point.

2006 Australian Grand Prix - Race
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 57 1:34:27.870 3 10 2 3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 57 +1.8 secs 4 8 3 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 57 +24.8 secs 6 6 4 16 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 57 +31.0 secs 8 5 5 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 57 +38.4 secs 2 4 6 17 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW 57 +49.5 secs 19 3 7 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 57 +51.9 secs 16 2 8 14 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 57 +53.9 secs 11 1 9 21 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 57 +78.8 secs 18 10 12 Jenson Button Honda 56 +1 Lap 1 11 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 56 +1 Lap 17 12 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 55 +2 Laps 21 13 23 Yuji Ide Super Aguri-Honda 54 +3 Laps 22 Ret 4 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 46 Electrical 5 Ret 18 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 39 Mechanical 20 Ret 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 37 Accident 12 Ret 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 32 Accident 10 Ret 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 22 Transmission 7 Ret 15 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari 4 Accident 13 Ret 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 0 Accident 9 Ret 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 0 Accident damage 14 Ret 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 0 Accident 15 Fastest Lap: Kimi Räikkönen 1:26.045 Notes: Speed finished eighth but had 25 seconds added to his race time for lack of attention to yellow flags.