1. Five world titles in a row 2000-2004
Stamping his mark as one of the greatest drivers of all-time, was Schumacher’s five titles in a row from 2000 through to 2004.
Schumacher won his third World Championship in 2000 after a year-long battle with Miko Häkkinen.
Schumacher won the first three races of the season and five of the first eight before mid-way through the year, his chances suffered with three consecutive non-finishes, allowing Häkkinen to close the gap in the standings.
Häkkinen then took another two victories, before Schumacher won at the Italian Grand Prix. At the post race press conference, after equalling the number of wins (41) won by his idol, Ayrton Senna, Schumacher broke into tears.
The championship fight would come down to the penultimate race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix.
Starting from pole position, Schumacher lost the lead to Häkkinen at the start. After his second pit-stop, however, Schumacher came out ahead of Häkkinen and went on to win the race and the championship.
In 2001, Schumacher took his fourth drivers’ title. Four other drivers won races, but none sustained a season-long challenge for the championship.
Schumacher scored a record-tying nine wins and clinched the world championship with four races yet to run.
He finished the championship with 123 points, 58 ahead of runner-up Damien Coulthard. Season highlights included the Canadian Grand Prix, where Schumacher finished 2nd to his brother Ralf, thus scoring the first ever 1–2 finish by brothers in Formula One and the Belgian Grand Prix in which Schumacher scored his 52nd career win, breaking Alain Prost’s record for most career wins.
In 2002, Schumacher used the Ferrari F2002 to retain his Drivers’ Championship. There was again some controversy, however, at the Austrian Grand Prix, where his teammate, Rubens Barrichello was leading but in the final metres of the race, under team orders, slowed down to allow Schumacher to win the race.
In winning the Drivers’ Championship he equalled the record set by Juan Manuel Fangio of five world championships. Ferrari won 15 out of 17 races, and Schumacher won the title with six races remaining in the season, which is still the earliest point in the season for a driver to be crowned World Champion.
Schumacher broke his own record, shared with Nigel Mansell, of nine race wins in a season, by winning eleven times and finishing every race on the podium.
He finished with 144 points, a record-breaking 67 points ahead of the runner-up, his teammate Rubens Barrichello. This pair finished 9 of the 17 races in the first two places.
Schumacher at Indianapolis in 2004, where he won the 2004 United States Grand Prix
Schumacher broke Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five World Drivers’ Championships by winning the drivers’ title for the sixth time in 2003, a closely contested season.
In 2004, Schumacher won a record twelve of the first thirteen races of the season, only failing to finish in Monaco after an accident with Juan Pablo Montoya during a safety car period when he briefly locked his car’s brakes.
He clinched a record seventh drivers’ title at the Belgian Grand Prix. He finished that season with a record 148 points, 34 points ahead of the runner-up, teammate Rubens Barrichello, and set a new record of 13 race wins out of a possible 18, surpassing his previous best of 11 wins from the 2002 season.
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