10 United States - Schumacher leads home a Ferrari one-two
Michael Schumacher played it cool, bided his time and then took the US Grand Prix victory - his fourth straight win at the fabled brickyard. Starting from Pole Position, Schumacher lost out to the fast-starting Felipe Massa on the run down to turn one and then shadowed his team-mate before taking the position during the first round of pit stops.
From that point it was job done for Schumacher who controlled his pace for the remainder of the event and crossed the line eight seconds ahead of Massa - who was never going to threaten his team-leader following the pit stops.
With Ferrari dominant first and second on their Bridgestone rubber, Giancarlo Fisichella drove a solid race to third, fighting his way passed his struggling team-mate to take the chequered flag in third position, just under nine seconds behind Massa.
While the top three made their way to the podium to greet a more-friendly American crowd this year, the rescue trucks headed out. Just nine of the 22 cars completed the race. Two major incidents in the opening seconds of the race resulted in several retirements. The run to the first turn is always the most dangerous part of the Grand Prix and the first incident saw Christian Klien clip Mark Webber eliminating himself and the Williams driver from the race. In the melee, Franck Montagny and the unfortunate Scott Speed were taken out as the rest of the field headed towards turn two.
Juan Pablo Montoya was caught out and ran into the back of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. This pushed Raikkonen in to Jenson Button who in turn was showed into Nick Heidfeld who was sent into a series of high-speed barrel rolls. Button made his way back around as the others climbed from their damages cars. Button would soon retire with accident related damage however. Takuma Sato managed to not get involved in the carnage and saved his rash move for the re-start on lap nine when he got it all wrong and struck the side of Tiago Montero ending both of their races on the spot.
Back on track and perhaps the drive of the day came from Jarno Trulli who started the race from the pit lane after Toyota opted to work on his TF106B's problematic suspension. Perhaps it was good fortune as had he started as planned in 19th position, then he too may well have been eliminated on the first lap.
As it was, Trulli drove a strong one stop race with good pace throughout. Team-mate Ralf Schumacher was cruising to fifth position after a solid race when his front left wheel bearing sent him to the pits and into retirement.
Championship leader Fernando Alonso finished in fifth position to record his first US Grand Prix finish of his career. It was a low-key run in a car that Alonso simply could not find the right balance for. Alonso's race highlight was his race start in which he managed to duck inside Michael Schumacher into turn two just as the incident behind were triggered. Alonso will leave American soil with a 19 point lead in the championship.
Rubens Barrichello started the race in fourth position in his Honda, but again on race day, his qualifying pace did not reflect his race pace. For Button, his retirement marked his fourth straight race without any points.
The battle for the final points positions was pretty fierce and fraught in and around the second round of pit stops. Seventh position went to David Coulthard who drove a good one stop race to hold off Tonio Liuzzi who scored the final point in eighth position. Liuzzi's point brings Toro Rosso their first point in Formula One a year on from Minardi's final points scoring result at this venue last year.
Nico Rosberg was the final finisher in ninth position and that pretty much summed up the young German's race weekend. Williams struggled for pace and Rosberg just did not have the pace to stop Liuzzi blowing past late in the race and taking the final point. Williams have now not scored a point in five races...
Christijan Albers lost time in the first lap incidents and ran at the back until a gearbox problem eliminated him from the race. Jacques Villeneuve was running well in seventh position in the first third of the race before an engine failure capped off a disappointing day for BMW Sauber.