The 2006 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on May 28, 2006 at the Circuit de Monaco. The race, contested over 78 laps, was the seventh round of the 2006 Formula One season. Prior to the race, Renault's Fernando Alonso had finished on the podium in all of the previous six Grands Prix, winning three of those races. His main championship rival, Michael Schumacher was looking to win the race as it would equal Ayrton Senna's record at Monaco for most wins (six).
The race was remembered by many people for Michael Schumacher's actions during the closing stages of the qualifying session for the race, where he stopped his car in the Rascasse corner, thus preventing his rival Fernando Alonso improving his time and most likely taking pole off Schumacher. Whether the move was deliberate is still a matter of debate. In the end, Schumacher's actions were deemed "deliberate" by the race stewards and he was demoted to the back of the grid as punishment for his actions, promoting Alonso from second to pole position.
Fernando Alonso went on to win the race, his first in Monaco. Juan Pablo Montoya came second and David Coulthard took full advantage of Jarno Trulli's late hydraulic failure to finish in third, scoring Red Bull Racing's first ever podium finish.
Read more about 2006 Monaco Grand Prix: Standings After The Race
Famous quotes containing the words monaco and/or grand:
“If there is anything so romantic as that castle-palace-fortress of Monaco I have not seen it. If there is anything more delicious than the lovely terraces and villas of Monte Carlo I do not wish to see them. There is nothing beyond the semi-tropical vegetation, the projecting promontories into the Mediterranean, the all-embracing sweep of the ocean, the olive groves, and the enchanting climate! One gets tired of the word beautiful.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)