F1: Michael Schumacher at his best - Top 5 races of all time

Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher

The first name that comes to mind whenever someone speaks about F1 is Michael Schumacher. The retired German driver is regarded as the statistically the best driver the sport has ever seen. The only man in F1 history who has seven world championship titles till today, out of which five were won in consecutive years (2000-2004). Schumacher also holds the record for winning the most number of Grand Prix wins of 91 and also for securing the most fastest lap records, 77. During the 2004 season, he ended up winning 13 races out of 18, recording it as the most number of Grand Prix wins in a single season.

The prolific racer initially announced his retirement at the end of 2006 season and continued to be part of Ferrari for few more years as Adviser. The racer inside the legend couldn’t remain calm, tried his stints at Motorcycle racing and IDM Superbike-series until he returned to the F1 arena again breaking his retirement signing with Mercedes for 2010 season. At the end of 3 years contract, he announced his second retirement. In the following year, Schumacher involved in a severe accident caused due to skiing, which put him in a coma for around 6 months till 16th June 2014.

Now let’s take a look at his top 5 races…

#5 Belgian Grand Prix, 1997

belgian grand prix 1997
Michael Schumacher in Belgian Grand Prix 1997

This Grand Prix is remembered as the first race in F1 history to start off behind the Safety Car. Another reason to remember is for Schumi’s excellence. Having qualified the race at the 3rd position behind Villeneuve and Alesi, he went on to win the race quite comfortably creating a 26second gap between him and Fisichella who finished the race at a 2nd spot having started at 4th.

As the conditions were heavily impacted by rain, the race started off with Safety car. Schumacher took full advantage of the conditions to his control, tried overtaking both Alesi and Villeneuve in the 5th lap. The German’s brave move to overtake Alesi at the La Source hairpin establishes how much control he had behind the wheels. He continued to further increase the gap from lap 5 till the end by pitting at right times and changing tires appropriately.

Video Belgian Grand Prix 1997 in rain

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#4 San Marino Grand Prix, 2005

San Marino GP 2005
Michael Schumacher hunts down the podium finish in San Marino 2005

It needn’t necessarily be a winning race to be among best races. If not for the Spanish or the Italian, the German could have won this race despite for the fact that he started the race at 13th place. Schumacher using his experience and skills to move up through the positions until he had to fight for the 3rd place against Italian Trulli for almost 20 laps. Later using his pit stop timing Schumacher went ahead of him to trail Alonso neck to neck.

From 50th lap till the last 62nd lap Schumacher was right on Alonso’s tail looking for some minute mistake from the in-form Spanish driver. However, the battle for the top spot was prevailing throughout the later stages of the race and Alonso successfully defended his spot being ahead of Schumi only by 0.2 seconds. The Spanish hero Alonso went on to win the season putting halt to Schumacher’s streak of 5 titles.

Video San Marino Grand Prix 2005

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#3 Spanish Grand Prix, 1996

Spanish Grand Prix 1996
Michael Schumacher earns his nickname "Rainmaster" after Spanish Grand Prix 1996

The German hero got his name, Regenmeister or Rainmaster only after this race which happened to be his first win for Ferrari. Qualifying third on the grid and after a poor start he was dropped to sixth place, it is still unbelievable from here how he was able to recover and take the lead within a span of 13 laps.

Schumi lived up to his nickname by showcasing his wet weather abilities by taking a few daring overtakes to claim the lead from Jean Alesi. From thereon he was unstoppable, he was clocking 2-3 seconds a lap quicker than every other racer. The talking point of this race is when he was lapping the Circuit de Catalunya a whole three seconds quicker than his rivals. Not only was he able to recover from a poor start, but he took control of the wet conditions and went on to win the race in a dominating fashion with a gap of over 45 seconds.

Video watch from 32secs

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#2 European Grand Prix, 1995

European Grand Prix 1995
Michael Schumacher wins for Benetton back in European Grand Prix 1995

This race marked the return of Formula One to Nurburg, Germany after almost a decade. Michael Schumacher who was back then driving behind the wheels of Benetton showed his skill to hunt down the lead rather than dominating from the front. 1995 season was that one which saw the rise of the genius, who won all his ‘home’ events the German Grand Prix, Belgian Grand Prix, Monaco Grand Prix and this European Grand Prix at Germany.

Rainmaster is known for his excellence in wet conditions, in this case, the race has mixed conditions. Initially, the track was wet and later during the course of the race it dried out. “I decided not to risk starting on slicks because the car felt so critical in these conditions and I wanted to play safe for the championship” proclaimed Schumacher after winning the title going past Ferrari’s Alesi and Williams’ Coulthard. After a minor collision with Alesi left him 30 seconds behind, later he clawed that time back through perfect strategies and daring overtakes to claim the lead with just 2 laps left for the Chequered flag.

Video watch from 57seconds

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#1 Chinese Grand Prix, 2006

Chinese Grand Prix 2006
Schumacher rejoicing his last title during Chinese Grand Prix 2006

Who knew that this Chinese GP race win for Schumacher, his 91st win would be his last. It never seemed like the last race of a retiring (though he later made a comeback from retirement) champ with such decorated career stats. The protagonist who started the race at sixth place went on to win the race leading the runner-up Alonso by three seconds.

Schumacher’s hunt at Shangai started on the 8th lap when he overtook Barrichello for the fifth position. Then he passed Jenson Button for the fourth position during the 14th lap. At this stage, Alonso would have least knew that Schumi who is 25 seconds behind him at the fourth place would lead him by 3 seconds in the end. Fisichella was caught by Schumacher at 19th lap who was gaining on Alonso, as Alonso was struggling with his tires with the track was getting dried up. After the pitstops, the race leading trio Fisichella, Alonso and Schumacher were racing nose to tail for several laps until Schumacher overtook Alonso and Fisichella at the 31st lap. Though Alonso was able to regain his speed changing his ripped off tires, clocking fastest laps, ran out of time to catch up with the legend.

Video watch from 3minutes 04secs

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Edited by Shahid Salman