page_title: 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix
section_title: Safety car and restart
hierarchical_section_title: 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix / Report / Race / Safety car and restart
caption_attribution_description: Formula One 2006 Rd.18 Interlagos: Safety Car with #6 Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari)
context_page_description: The 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 22 October 2006 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo. It was the 18th and final race of the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race determined the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships for the season, with Fernando Alonso and Renault winning their respective championships. The race itself attracted 154 million viewers.
  The 71-lap race was won by local driver Felipe Massa, driving a Ferrari, with Alonso taking second in his Renault and Jenson Button third in a Honda. Massa was the first Brazilian driver to win his home Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna in 1993. Michael Schumacher, in what was expected to be his last-ever race, finished fourth, having started tenth and suffered a puncture which dropped him to 19th.
  Schumacher retired from Formula One after this race, with seven Drivers' Championships to his name, although he would return in 2010 with Mercedes. His seat at Ferrari was taken by Kimi Räikkönen, whilst Alonso moved to McLaren to partner rookie Lewis Hamilton.
context_section_description: As the safety car picked up the field at the end of lap 2, Massa led Räikkönen, Trulli and Alonso with Fisichella and Michael Schumacher moving up to 5th and 6th respectively. Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Kubica and Button completed the top ten, Button having taken advantage of the two Williams retiring and having passed Heidfeld and Pedro de la Rosa.
  The restart took place on lap six and saw Button move past Kubica on the inside as the two crossed the line only 0.038secs apart. Michael Schumacher was also soon to attack Fisichella's Renault, forcing the Italian to protect the inside line in turns 4 and 5. On the next lap Button went past Ralf Schumacher up to 8th while Massa was pulling away comfortably from his pursuers at the front. His teammate Schumacher tried to move past Fisichella around the outside on the main straight. But Fisichella put up a fight, staying on the inside on the entry into the 1st corner. Schumacher aggressively cut across to the inside into the first corner, trying to force Fisichella to back off. Fisichella tried to avoid contact by moving onto the kerb, but his front wing appeared to make very light contact with the Ferrari's left rear tyre. Indeed, Schumacher's car began to slide violently in the next corner as his tyre deflated forcing the German to drive the entire lap at significantly reduced speed, and to see the entire field move past him in the process. The Ferrari team took eleven seconds to change all four tyres - taking the opportunity to add fuel as well. When Schumacher rejoined, he was only a few seconds in front of his teammate Massa thus being almost a lap down on the race leader.
  The two Ferraris proceeded to post the quickest lap times with Massa comfortably increasing his gap to Räikkönen in second, while the Toyotas hit trouble with first Ralf Schumacher and then Jarno Trulli retiring in the pits on lap 10. This meant that the order on lap 11 was: 1st Massa, 2nd Räikkönen, 3rd Alonso, 4th Fisichella, 5th Barrichello, 6th Button, 7th Kubica, 8th de la Rosa, 9th Heidfeld, 10th Scott Speed, 11th Vitantonio Liuzzi, 12th David Coulthard, 13th Takuma Sato, 14th Christijan Albers, 15th Sakon Yamamoto, 16th Robert Doornbos, 17th Tiago Monteiro and 18th and last Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.
  The race now settled into a steady pattern with the Ferraris still quickest and Alonso closing to within two seconds of Räikkönen's McLaren. Coulthard retired his Red Bull-Ferrari with mechanical problems on lap 14. The first planned pitstops took place on lap 21 with Räikkönen, Fisichella and Barrichello all coming in for fuel and tires. Fisichella's stop was slightly slower than Barrichello's, which nearly resulted in a collision as the two exited the pitlane - the Renault driver only just maintaining his position. They reemerged on the track 7th, 8th and 9th respectively, just behind de la Rosa and Heidfeld who had hitherto been contesting 8th place with Heidfeld quicker in the corners but unable to match the McLaren's straight-line speed. Massa closed to within a couple of seconds of lapping his teammate, setting a fastest lap of 1:12.8 before pitting on lap 23 at which point he had a 15-second gap to Alonso in second. Massa was stationary for just over 8 seconds and rejoined in third behind Button who was now in second despite having started 14th. Button pitted on the next lap, his 7.9 second stop allowing him to rejoin in 7th comfortably ahead of Fisichella and Barrichello. Alonso made his stop on the following lap and was able to rejoin just in front of Räikkönen but still behind de la Rosa and Heidfeld. Kubica then pitted from second position on lap 26 and dropped to 9th. His teammate followed suit on lap 27 falling behind the two Toro Rosso in the process just as Button was able to slipstream Räikkönen and outbrake him into turn one. Massa now led by 17 seconds in front of de la Rosa, who would not stop until 8 laps later. Alonso, Button and Räikkönen followed with a small gap back to Fisichella and Barrichello.
  Michael Schumacher had moved up to 13th courtesy of pitstops by the Aguris
caption: Massa behind the Safety Car.
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