It was also remembered for Schumacher coming back from his penalty during the race to finish fifth on a circuit that is notorious for overtaking being almost impossible.

Juan Pablo Montoya came second, scoring his last podium and David Coulthard took full advantage of Jarno Trulli's late hydraulic failure to finish in third, scoring Red Bull Racing's first ever podium finish and also first ever podium for Ferrari as an engine supplier for a customer team since 2003 United States Grand Prix when Sauber was a Ferrari customer team but badged as Petronas.

Honda's Anthony Davidson was top of the time sheet on day one, with Alexander Wurz's Williams around 4 tenths behind him.

[6] Honda continued to their advantage over Williams on day two of testing, with Jenson Button topping the times; Davidson was second and Mark Webber was third.

[9] The bottom 6 teams in the 2005 Constructors' Championship and Super Aguri were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday.

[10] Wurz was very pleased with his performance in practice, "I went through my tyre choice and I have to say the way the circuit is progressing, it is coming to us just as it did at the Nürburgring, which is good.

[11] Anthony Davidson had dislodged a marker stick in the "Swimming Pool" to cause the red flag at the start of the session.

At the end of the first session Michael Schumacher was fastest, while Christijan Albers, Tiago Monteiro, Takuma Sato, Franck Montagny, Scott Speed and Felipe Massa were eliminated.

Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Jenson Button, Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld were eliminated.

[14] Steward Joaquin Verdegay commented, "He performed some absolutely unnecessary and pathetic counter-steering, and that lasted five metres, until there was no more chances of going through the turn normally.

[17] With Schumacher starting from the back of the grid and Mark Webber between him and his closest rival, Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso was in a good position.

Coming into first corner, Alonso led the Williams of Webber and the two McLarens of Räikkönen and Montoya, nearly all 22 cars escaped the first corner unscathed, only Tiago Monteiro had picked up a problem, losing his front wing after a minor collision with his teammate, Christijan Albers.

Webber was having a good race for Williams that afternoon, but it was to be cut short due to an exhaust failure; as the Australian completed his 48th lap, smoke started to appear at the back of his car and it blew up in flames at the exit of the pit lane.

After two laps under the safety car, Räikkönen had bad luck as well when a heat shield, which had caught fire before in the first practice session, caught fire again, burning through the car's wiring and, judging by the on-board footage, cutting off the electricity to the engine; Räikkönen parked his McLaren at the exit of the Portier turn.

With the safety car coming back into the pits, Alonso restarted in first place with Juan Pablo Montoya right behind him and Rubens Barrichello third; Coulthard and Schumacher were in the points as well.

Christian Klien retired a lap later, promoting his teammate David Coulthard to fifth and Michael Schumacher to sixth.

Barrichello, who was having a good Grand Prix up to lap 63, when he was given a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane; thus promoting Jarno Trulli up to third place and Coulthard to fourth.

With a podium almost certain for Trulli, his Toyota team were pleased with the new car's performance but, on lap 72, the Italian had a hydraulic failure that shut the car down on the way up to the Casino, promoting Coulthard to third, who was now on course to take Red Bull's first podium, and moving Trulli's teammate, Ralf Schumacher, who had had a very quiet Grand Prix, up into the points.

Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth in the sister Renault; Nick Heidfeld was seventh, and Ralf Schumacher took the final point up for grabs in eighth.