2006 Stats Update: Turkey

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Fernando Alonso may have added to his advantage over Michael Schumacher in Istanbul, but Ferrari are almost level with Renault in the constructors’ championship. Let’s take a look at how all the drivers and teams are performing statistically.

Another solid points finish for Pedro de la Rosa has brought him level with David Coulthard. Juan Pablo Montoya scored twenty-six points in ten starts; replacement de la Rosa now has fourteen from four with a further four to go. No wonder McLaren are seriously considering retaining him for 2007.

Alonso’s 12 point lead over Schumacher is twice what it would have been had the finishing order in Turkey been Schumacher-Felipe Massa-Alonso.

The closely fought battle for third place changed drastically with Massa’s maiden victory. He is now set to leave Giancarlo Fisichella and Kimi Raikkonen behind, the latter having failed to score in the last two rounds.

The championship duellists have each failed to score only once this season. The spread of their results is so similar that the new championship points system introduced in 2003 doesn’t make an enormous difference to the gap between them. Alonso’s 12 point lead is one less than it would be under 1991-2002 points.

Ferrari cut Renault’s championship lead for the fifth consecutive race. The gap between the two was 34 points after Canada and has now shrunk to just two.

That is also the same distance between Toyota, fifth, and BMW, sixth, after Ralf Schumacher’s seventh place in Turkey.

Can we now say the Ferrari 248 has been a faster car on average throughout the season than the Renault R25?

Michael Schumacher has had more top three starts (nine) than Alonso (eight) and would surely have had one more had it not been for his indiscretion at Monaco. Massa, too, has had more than Fisichella, and he also became the sixth polesitter of the year at Turkey.

The two Ferrari drivers certainly have the most reliable cars – not a single mechanical failure during a race this year. They have eight more races to achieve a perfect run of reliability, but should one such failure befall Schumacher it could terminate his championship chances.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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One comment on “2006 Stats Update: Turkey”

  1. Go Felipe! He’ll win again this year, at Interlagos I feel.

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