French Grand Prix – Magny-Cours, 16th July 2006
Michael Schumacher: 1st 1:32:07.803 70 laps chassis 254
Felipe Massa: 3rd + 22.546 70 laps chassis 252
Temperatures: air 34/35 °C, track 47/50 °C
Fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. This
is the fifteenth French Grand Prix win for the Prancing Horse,
number 187 from 734 races. For Michael Schumacher this is
his eighty eighth win from 243 Grand Prix starts, the eighth
at this circuit.
Jean Todt: “This is a great result,
picking up first and third places with Michael and Felipe
respectively. We knew this would be a very tough race in which
tyre performance would be critical and that prediction turned
out to be true. The team did an excellent job, the drivers
drove very well, the cars proved reliable and the Bridgestone
tyres were up to the task in hand. The combination of all
these elements means that both championships are still up
for grabs. There are seven races remaining this season and
as we have always said, we will do all we can to meet our
targets. This victory is particularly significant for me:
even if I am a European, living in Italy, I am happy to celebrate
my thirteen years with this brilliant Ferrari team with a
win here in France. In Maranello, we have managed to put together
a group of people with great qualities, supported by exceptional
technical and commercial partners and it is nice to be here
together with them to celebrate this success.”
Michael Schumacher: “A fantastic result,
even if in all honesty it was unexpected. We did not know
how the race would pan out, especially as we had not been
able to do many long runs over the previous days. For these
ten points, I have to thank the great guys in the team and
our exceptional technical partners, starting with Bridgestone.
The whole package – car, engine, tyres – was excellent
today. I got a good start and from then on I could run my
own race. Now we have to keep this momentum going. The championship
is far from over and these two points we have made up on our
main rivals are very important. I hope we can soon make up
more ground.”
Felipe Massa: “I think this was a
very good result for us, although of course I would have liked
to keep second place. I was on a three stop strategy and Fernando
was switched to a two stop race and that meant I was not able
to fight with him on the track. I also had a lot of traffic
in my second and third stints and this effectively spoilt
our three stop strategy and cost me second place. But overall,
sixteen points in the bag means we make up a bit of ground
on our rivals in both championships. The 248 F1 and the Bridgestone
tyres worked better than I expected, possibly because of the
extra rubber which gradually got put down on the track.”
Ross Brawn: “It’s a really great
result at the end of a weekend when the whole team did a great
job. Right from the start of the weekend, we had opted for
a rather aggressive tyre choice, which paid off from yesterday’s
qualifying. Then today we prepared and managed the tyres during
the race. Actually, they were very good and on Michael’s
car, fantastic. We lost a bit of performance with Felipe from
around half distance and we need to understand why. It was
a shame, as his pace early on was very strong. Now we have
to keep on moving forward, trying to improve race by race.”
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