Michael Schumacher had qualified only third on a drying Spa-Francorchamps track on 2 September 2001, behind the Williams pair of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Ninety minutes of racing later he was on the top step of the sport’s all-time wins list, past Alain Prost.

The Ferrari driver got clean away at the second start, pulled clear of David Coulthard’s McLaren and won by 10.098 seconds, with Giancarlo Fisichella third for Benetton.

A twice-red-flagged Belgian GP

The race was chaotic. It was halted after a first-lap incident and restarted, then stopped again when Luciano Burti’s Prost speared into a tyre wall at high speed after contact with Eddie Irvine. Burti was pulled out with concussion and no broken bones. Between the stoppages, Schumacher drove away from the field to win in 1h08m05.002.

“When everything fits together then you can do these kind of things and today everything fitted together,” he said afterwards.

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Prost’s 51 wins, and his verdict on being overtaken

Prost had held the wins record for years. He first drew level with Jackie Stewart’s 27 back in 1987, then closed his career on 51 after a 1993 season with Williams that gave him his fourth world title.

At Spa, the Frenchman was generous about the record changing hands.

“He deserves this kind of record. 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,” Prost said.

Schumacher, by then a four-time world champion, was less interested in the number.

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“I can’t say I’m much motivated by statistics, but of course it does mean something to have that number 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,” he said.

Ferrari’s Monza tribute this weekend

The anniversary lands as the Scuderia prepares another Schumacher milestone. Ferrari has rolled out a one-off Schumacher-inspired livery for the Italian Grand Prix, marking 30 years since he first pulled on the red overalls in 1996.

The SF-26 runs at Monza from 4 to 6 September with deeper red panels, retro-font race numbers, gold-tinted BBS wheel rims and the white seven-star motif from Schumacher’s helmet on the nose. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc drive it, and the trackside team also wears commemorative kit for the weekend.

“Michael’s time at Ferrari was about much more than just wins and titles: his relentless pursuit of perfection, attention to detail, discipline and ability to be a true team player helped create a culture that became one of the defining characteristics of the Scuderia,” the team said in a statement.

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Three of Schumacher’s Ferraris, the 1996 F310, the 2002 F2002 and the 2006 248 F1, are on show at the circuit. Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel are due to demonstrate the F2002 around Monza on Saturday and Sunday.

Schumacher retired at the end of 2012 with 91 wins, all scored by 2006. Lewis Hamilton passed that mark at the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix and now sits on 106 wins, with Max Verstappen third all-time on 71 behind Schumacher.

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