On this day: Michael Schumacher beats Alain Prost’s F1 victory record

On 2 September 2001, Michael Schumacher surpassed Alain Prost’s record of 51 Formula 1 victories, winning the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

Prost had been the record holder since 1987, when he matched Jackie Stewart’s tally of 27, and went on to clinch nearly as many wins from then on, until his 1993 retirement.

The 1993 season, coincidentally, marked Schumacher’s continued emergence. By 2001, he had become a four-time world champion; his race-winning Hungarian GP drive meant he equalled Prost in terms of both victories and titles, as he clinched that year’s crown with 94 points to David Coulthard’s 51.

Prost knew his time as F1’s most successful driver in history – by that metric – was coming to an end and was at peace with it. “He deserves this kind of record,” the Frenchman said of Schumacher. “I know he has been motivated very much to get this kind of record, which is understandable. You cannot win more than 50 races if you're not good and he is the best at the moment, one of the best of all time, and he deserves to have this record.”

Schumacher again proved his talent at Spa-Francorchamps, though he was only third on the grid following qualifying on a drying track; Williams locked out the front row, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher some two seconds faster after gambling on dry-weather tyres earlier than their rivals.

But the incident-filled race instantly took a turn for the worse for Williams, as Montoya stalled on the grid for the second formation lap (after Heinz-Harald Frentzen suffered the same fate earlier), while Ralf Schumacher’s car was inexplicably left up on its jacks ahead of the second start.

That second start occurred because of a hefty shunt for Prost Grand Prix’s Luciano Burti, following a collision with Jaguar’s Eddie Irvine coming into the high-speed Blanchimont curve. The concussed Brazilian was ruled out of the remainder of the season.

Schumacher inherited the lead at the second start, with Fisichella unintentionally helping him run away

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Getty Images

While those first four laps were declared null and void, meaning they officially never existed, the second starting grid was based on the classification at the end of the opening action, so the Schumachers locked out the front row until the Williams mechanics’ blunder took Ralf out of the battle for victory, with both FW23s ending up at the back of the pack.

From then on, Michael Schumacher was simply untouchable, albeit helped by Benetton’s Giancarlo Fisichella storming from fifth to second at the start and slowing the other frontrunners down. The newly crowned four-time champion pulled a 20-second gap by lap nine, when he made his first pitstop.

Schumacher maintained that pace to bring his advantage to 31 seconds over McLaren’s Coulthard, who had finally found a way past Fisichella, on lap 28 – with just eight more tours remaining. And that was despite making a mistake on lap 17, when the Ferrari driver ran wide at Stavelot.

From then on, Schumacher took it easy to cross the finish line 10 seconds ahead of Coulthard, who was the runner-up in the championship, with Fisichella a further 18 seconds adrift, while Williams narrowly failed to score any points.

Schumacher romped to victory with little competition

Photo by: LAT Images via Getty Images

So, Schumacher beat Prost’s record in style, though he insisted he did not care all that much about it.

“I can't say I'm much motivated by statistics,” he said, “but of course it does mean something to have that number [52] on my account. But I will be more delighted in a few years when I am sitting on my sofa, with a beer and cigar, thinking about it.”

Meanwhile, Prost reiterated how impressed he had been by the driver who, statistically, was now his equal.

“I know better than anyone how tough it is to be a world champion and how very tough it is to be a four-time champion,” the Frenchman insisted.

“Michael has the qualities to succeed with his talents and his concentration and motivation. That is why I believe he can be a five-time or even a six-time champion. He and Ferrari are a big force now. I don't know if he can win 60 or 70 races, but there is no reason why not.”

Schumacher went on to set a 91-victory marker that long seemed unassailable – until Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen started rewriting the record books.