By Phil Giles
July 2 2006

The US Grand Prix gets underway with Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro lining up 14th and 15th on the grid after the teams best ever qualifying session. *** Spoiler Warning ***

After 2005's race, it's going to be a bit much to get another podium place but sure as hell, you can bet that it's part of the plan.

Parade Lap.
Jarno Trulli starts from the pit lane in the Toyota having taken the car out of parc ferme to change some suspension parts.  There's a shot of the Midland engineers standing around what looked like a dry ice machine to keep cool!

Lap 1
1st corner incident involving a midland, Scott Speed, and both Mclarens
Raikonnen, Heidfeld, Montoya, Webber, Speed, Klien and Montagny are out. Heidfeld was collected after Montoya shunted Kimi.  He spectacularly barrel rolls into the gravel trap.   The safety car comes out.  Albers pits from 14th. He was clearly involved in that incident at the back. Monteiro is up to 9th!

Lap 2
Albers comes back out in 15th just behind Jenson Button.

Lap3
The safety car is still out.  Button Pits. The car was smoking as he came down the put lane.  He could be out of the race.

Lap 4
Jenson Button retires. The car is loosing water

Lap 5
Massa leads.  The Safety car doesn't go down the pit lane, instead it pulls off the track at the banking.  Massa seems to be the only one who's spotted this!

Lap 6
Sato collects one of the Midlands into the first corner. Does this idiot not know what brakes are? Monteiro looks like he's out. With major damage to the car. Sato has stopped out on track. Thankfully.

Lap 8
Monteiro pits. The team have sent him back out. The side of the car looks as though it's flapping about. He's never going to get that home.

Lap 10
Ferrari's are off into the distance. Oil flag is shown on the start finish straight.

Lap 11
Monteiro pits again. This has to be a retirement. He's out. Shakes his head as he removes his helmet.

Lap 13
It's up to Christijan to keep it on the island, despite having been collected in the first lap incident.

Lap 14
Fisi takes Alonso into turn one.

Lap 17
You get the feeling that the rest of this race is going to be a procession to the end. Unless all the Michelin tyres fail!

Tiago says: Happy and relived to go through the first mess. hit another car but spotted gap, then the Aguri tried to win the race on the first lap. a wasted opportunity as we could have scored points this weekend.

Lap 19
Albers loosing a second and a half per lap behind Liuzzi.

Lap 21
Fastest lap for Fisi

Lap 23
Villenuve out from 7th place with what looks like a hydraulic failure. locking the rear wheels.

Lap 24
Barichello pits for a scheduled stop.

Lap 26
Massa puts in the fastest lap of the race so far. Albers is 11.6 seconds behind Liuzzi in 11th place. He's clearly lost the balance of the car. Hopefully the team can do something at his scheduled stop. Only half of the grid still running.

Lap 28
Schumacher pits for his first stop. Albers also comes into the pit as does Fisichello

Lap 29
Massa pits Alonso leads but still needs to stop for fuel.

Lap 30
Albers has to take to the grass to let both of the Ferrari's through. No problem for Christijan but that's another few seconds lost to Liuzzi in front.  A replay shows Albers hitting some debris just before the first corner.

Lap 32
Albers sets his personal fastest lap at 1:15.449.

Sato says: "We had already started braking." He alleges that Tiago turned into him and he ran out of space. "He knew he was beside and didn't give me any space."

Lap 33
Albers pits again. He comes back out and put in his fastest first and second sectors. 1:14.731 Has he now got the setup back and can he gain some time back?

Lap 39
Trulli pits from 3rd place. Single stopping.  Albers pits again. 4th time. Looks terminal. It's a very long stop.

Lap 41.
Midland's US grand prix is over. Christijan retires. 10 runners now.

Lap 50
Barichello pits again.

Lap 51
Schumacher puts in the fastest lap of the race so far.

Lap 52
Massa Pits.

Lap 53
Fisi Pits, as does Ralf Schumacher Fisi gets out in front of Trulli.

Lap 53
Schumacher pits

Lap 55
Alonso takes a long time in the pit lane. Both Toyota's have got past him. He's only going to pick up three world championship points.

Lap 56
Rosberg and Liuzzi nearly have a coming together at the first corner. He lost a lot of momentum and time. He doesn't look to have damaged the car but has lost a place to the Torro Rosso.

Lap 63
Ralf Schumacher retires. Allowing Alonso to pick up another point. Only 9 cars are running. Liuzzi picks up a point.

Lap 66
ITV are keen to remind viewers that Coronation Street starts after the race.
Looks like Nico Rosberg will be the only car running not to collect any points this weekend.

Lap 70
Schumacher still leads from Massa. Looks like a Ferrari 1-2. Fisichella in third place. Arnold Trolley will be fourth.

Lap 73
The end of an eventful race and Schumacher takes the flag.

The teams can now bag up and set off back home. The next race is the French Grand Prix in two weeks time at Magny-Cours.