By Phil Giles
July 30 2006

The German Grand Prix qualifying put Tiago Monteiro in 18th place and Christijan Albers in 21st. Albers had to take an engine penalty but the car was simply not fast enough for the team to get into the second session of qualifying. ***Spoiler Alert***

Parade Lap.
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Yamamoto starts from the pit lane in the SA05 T-car after totalling the SA06.

Start
Everyone away ok. Kimi keeps the lead. Williams Nico Rosberg out. Yamamoto stalls at the end of the pit lane. Franck Montagny must be gutted!

Lap2
Heidfeld, Villeneuve and Ranf Schumacher pit after a coming together down at the hairpin.

Lap 3
Tiago and Christijan up to 16th and 17th

Lap 4
De la Rosa pulls out of the race. It looks like he spun off onto the grass but it's revealed to be a technical problem that's stopped the car.

Lap 5
Yamamoto pits into retirement. Kimi is flying. Must be on vapour.

Lap 6
TM 15th CA 16th. 0.4s separates the Midland boys. Albers passes Tiago. Chasing down Sato's SA.

Lap 7
Christijan is only .4s off Sato.

Lap 8
Christijan struggling with the rolling roadblock of Takuma Sato. Albers is faster and as per usual just can't get past. Tiago keeping pace with Christijan.

Lap 10
Kimi pits. Long stop as there was a problem with right rear. Albers passes Sato. and is already 1.4 seconds in front. Heidfeld retires.

Lap 11
Albers is 3.3 seconds faster than Sato

Lap 12
Tiago just .3s behind Sato. Albers now only 2.7s behind Scott Speed. What a fantastic race from CA.

Lap 15
Rubens pushes Webber out on the hairpin to take 6th. Button pits and comes out behind Kimi

Lap 17
Albers less than 2 seconds behind Speed. 8 seconds in front of Takuma Slow.

Lap 18
Barrichello pits.

Lap 19
Ralf Schumacher is about to pass Tiago and has done so. Barrichello retires just after his stop. The rear of the car on fire.

Lap 20
Michael Schumacher pits. Christijan up to 13th as Ralf passes Sato. Christijan is only 1 second behind Speed.

Lap 22
Albers less than .5 secs behind Scott Speed. Surely the team need to pit for fuel.

Lap 23
DC pits. Tiago still close to

Lap 25
Tiago Pits. a good move from the team as Sato is yet to pit.

Lap 28
Sato pits. Will Tiago get past him? Webber, Raikonnen and Trulli pit.

Lap 29
Sato does get out in front of Tiago. Only just by the look of it.

Lap 30
Albers pits as does Ralf Schumacher.

Lap 32
Ralf is under investigation. Speeding in the pit lane. Villeneuve goes straight off into the last corner.

Lap 35
Ralf is on the ragged edge and comes in for his drive through penalty.

Lap 40
Sato pits and retires. Tiago is released. Fisi pits.

Lap 41
Tiago has an opportunity to close the gap on Christijan

Lap 42
Drive through penalty for Monteiro ignoring the waved blue flags. Not a good weekend for the Portuguese driver.

Lap 43
Albers still inside a second behind Scott Speed. He's having a superb race. That Torro Rosso simply can't get away. Albers is so close to Speed. He's all over the back of him. It's a fantastic battle.

Lap 45
Michael pits for the last time

Lap 46
Tiago in to the pit again. Albers gains from a mistake by Scott Speed to take the place. Good pressure from Christijan. Albers is going to have to stop again as will Speed.

Lap 48
Albers is 1.5 seconds behind DC. This is just phenomenal race pace from Christijan.

Lap 49
Albers pits as does Speed. Can we keep the place?

Lap 50
Well done boys. We keep the place in front of the Torro Rosso.

Lap 53
MS leads from Massa and Raikonnen

Lap 55
Kimi pits and comes out with Webber. They drag each other into the corner and Kimi manages to oust Webber to keep the space.

Lap 58
Button looses a podium place to Kimi Raikonnen.

Lap 59
Webber may have a problem. Looks like he's going to retire. Back end of the car on fire.

Lap 61
Scott Speed has got back in front of Albers. Didn't notice when or how that happened.

Lap 64
Albers dropping behind thanks to the blue flags.

Lap 67
Schumacher wins. Massa second, Kimi finishes third and Jenson Button in fourth.

Christijan finishes in 13th, 11 seconds off Scott Speed. Tiago ends the race one lap down on Christijan in 14th.

For most of the race, Christijan was doggedly pursuing Scott Speed and managed to get past him. It'll be interesting to hear how he lost the place back but he ran a superb race once he cleared the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato.

Onwards to the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend.