The opening round of the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship was great with plenty of racing action.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was a contest between the champions of the past and present – Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher – who both fought out a tense duel which resulted in victory for the Spaniard by only 1.246s.
Michael Schumacher’s pace signalled a major Ferrari revival this year, after the bitter disappointment of last year’s campaign. The 248 is competitive and this allow the German to fight for wins.
Michael came close to winning in today’s race (March 12th) but lost out – just – by Fernando and the excellent Renault team. It was very exciting as the Renault came out of the pits alongside the Ferrari into turn 1. Fernando edged out Michael and the race was won in a matter of inches!
Great team work by the Renault F1 team and even Fernando dedicated his latest victory to the winning organisation.
In third place, McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen drove an excellent race from 22nd position. The Finn held off Jenson Button, who gave a magnificent exhibition of overtaking as he fought to make amends from a poor start.
But the star of the race was Nico Rosberg. After a clash with BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in the first corner on the opening lap, he pitted for brief repairs, losing 45 seconds, and then staged a superb recovery drive to seventh. On the way he twice set the fastest lap, leaving it at 1m 32.408s. Impressive!
