This weekend marked the twelfth race of the season for the McLaren Mercedes F1 team at Hockenheim in Germany.  As usual, if you missed the race but have a date planned with your TIVO later, read no further; otherwise, keep reading for the full race recap.

In qualifying, the team performed well, with Kimi Raikkonen taking pole position in the race while teammate Pedro de la Rosa started from the ninth starting spot. The opening of the race went equally as well, with Kimi maintaining the lead over Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa while de la Rosa moved up from the ninth to seventh position by the end of the opening lap.

Unfortunately for de la Rosa, that was the extent of his good fortune. Only two laps later, the Spaniard was forced to retire, due to a mechanical failure of his car's fuel pump.  For Kimi, however, things progressed at least somewhat better.

Over the opening laps of the race, the Finn managed to extend his lead to approximately three seconds over the rest of the field.  After choosing to adopt a three-stop strategy for the race, Kimi made his first stop on lap 10, resuming the race in eighth position after a problem with a cross-threaded right rear wheel nut resulted in a stationary time of 15.2 seconds.

By lap 28, Kimi had moved his way up into the fifth position before making his second stop of the day, resuming the race in seventh.

Twenty laps later, after the remainder of the field had completed the second round of pit stops, Kimi worked with way up four spots, now holding third.

On lap 55, Kimi made his third and final stop, resuming the race in fourth.  Two laps later Kimi closed the gap to Jenson Button of Honda from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds, and on lap 57, he overtook the Briton to move into third.  Ten laps later, Kimi crossed the finish line of the 67 lap race, still holding the third spot. 

Meanwhile, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher captured his third straight F1 win, narrowing the points gap between him and points leader Fernando Alonso to just 11.  Felipe Massa, also of Ferrari, took second.

For more info, keep reading to view the full Team McLaren Mercedes F1 race recap, complete with race overview and driver interviews. Enjoy.








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F1 Hockenheim: Kimi Räikkönen Third


Hockenheim, Jul 30, 2006
The start: For the first time this season - and for the ninth time in his career - Kimi started the race from pole position. At the start he took an immediate lead ahead of the Ferraris of Schumacher and Felipe Massa. Pedro started from ninth position and was up to seventh place by the end of the opening lap. The Spaniard had to retire on lap three due to a mechanical failure of his car's fuel pump.

The race: Kimi stretched his leading advantage to approximately three seconds. His team had planned that he would run a three stop strategy and he came in for his first stop on lap 10 and resumed in eighth position. His car was stationary for 15.2sec due to a problem with a cross-threaded right rear wheel nut.

On lap 28 the Finn came in for his second stop (7.2sec) while holding fifth position. He resumed seventh. For several laps afterwards his lap times were faster than the leading cars and he closed the gap to Alonso who was directly ahead of him. At the end of the second round of pit stops, on lap 48 Kimi was up to third position. He lost one place through his third pit stop on lap 55 (6.6sec) and resumed fourth.

In just two laps he closed the gap to Jenson Button (Honda) from 3sec to just 0.5sec and on lap 57 he overtook the Briton in front of the Mercedes grandstand to take third. After 67 laps he crossed the line in this position.

Comments

Kimi Räikkönen: "To be on the podium is really the best result that we could have achieved today as we have had several problems. During the race I had a small problem in my first pit-stop; I suffered from blistering on my second set of tyres and there was a small problem with the hydraulics which meant that Jenson Button was able to get ahead after my first stop. However none of these really mattered as we were able to make up all the time in the last part of the race where we were very strong. The result today shows that the car has definitely improved and hopefully next race we can do even better."

Pedro de la Rosa: "It is a real shame that my race ended so quickly, especially after I had such a good start and had moved up two places. The car felt really quick and was easy to drive. I was catching the Renault's when all of a sudden I lost power and had to pull up, as a result of a failed fuel pump. Although I am disappointed these things happen and I am now just looking forward to the race next weekend in Hungary where hopefully we can better demonstrate the improved competitiveness of the car."

Ron Dennis, Team Principal: "An outstanding race by Kimi and I am exceedingly pleased for the team because of the necessity to vary our strategy and the role this played in getting onto the podium. Our apologies to Pedro whose retirement was the result of a mechanical fuel pump failure, the cause of which will be analysed over the next few days. It is hard to be satisfied with this result but it was the best we could do in the circumstances and we now look forward to the next race where we hope our improved performance should continue."

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "A good race result at the Mercedes-Benz home Grand Prix as the best Michelin car and a super job by Kimi. Taking into consideration that we had problems with a crossed wheel nut on the right rear tyre on his car during the first pit stop and a small hydraulic problem during the race we could not do any better against the combination of Bridgestone and Ferrari. The failure on Pedro's car was a shame. I am sure that he definitely was able to get into the top five."

Copyright © 2006, DaimlerChrysler AG