The forever HERO in driving history in my opinion !
*passing his throne to the rising star - Fernando Alonso
He will retire from F1 after this season
But Schumacher will always be remembered for his ability to RACE...
Of the years i have followed Formula 1, he was the person who made the race interesting, and also made it boring at some point because he was the only person winning after the departure of Mika Hakkinen.
With the challenge from the FIA together with Alonso, this year's championship was by far on of the most interesting throughout the years.
During the beginning of the season, it was seemed that Alonso was going to dominate the entire season, but Schumi together with Ferrari and new team mate Massa faught hard to stay ahead of the game. The race was neck to neck, Ferrari being able to fight back after the China Race, giving Schumacher the lead. But a tragic engine failure in Suzuka, Japan took his hopes of being 8th time world champion.
Despite trailing 10 points behind Alonso, he still pose to strike back in Brazil; yet another tragic fuel pump failure ripped him off taking the pole position and had to start 10th.
Race day saw the all time Brazillian football legend Pele giving a token of appreciation to Schumi.
Race started, with Massa in the pole position and Alonso at 4th, Schumacher showed the world who is the daddy by lapping FOUR cars in the FIRST TWO LAPS !!!!, hence from 10th place at the starting grid, he was 6th just when the safety car came out ! *due to Rosberg's crash*
When things started to be showing the path of Schumacher's glory, his suffered a tyre punture immdiately after passing Fisichella's Renault after the safety car was removed. Embarrasingly dragging the carcass (the car) *as the commentators put it* into the pits, Schumacher was the first to pit that day and was very soon ONE LAP behind eveyone on the race. At that point i really thought he'd gave up and end his career with a technical fault/luck *it was believed that the debris from the Rosberg crash has cut a hole in his tyre*
Of all things, that was to happen to him at that time, no one else caught the debris....................
So coming out of the pits being the last in the lot, Schumacher faught like a mad man. Settling the fastest lap times all the way. Along the way, 5 cars retired; so he was the 17th (the last) .......
then came he did the impossible........................
immediately after refuelling his car for the remain 29 laps of the race *since he pitted quite early, he was on a ONE STOP strategy* , he did the fastest lap of the day with fresh tyres..........
this clearly shows what Schumacher was made of.................
He managed to chase up to Fisichella once again and no matter how hard Fisichella tried to flung him off, he just kept bitting back, at last after 10 laps, Schumacher showed the tail light of the Ferrari to Fisichella.
The Ferrari quickly caught the McLaren ahead, and Schumacher made it past with a very brave move as Raikkonen robustly defended his position at the first corner with three laps to go.
With Button more than six seconds ahead in third place, that was as far as Schumacher would go, but his performance at least ensured he bowed out of F1 in style.
At the end of the race, Massa was first, Alonso second, Button third.......; Alonso having the second championship win.
Schumacher finished fourth, but i know in many spectators opinion, that was hell of a race, from the pace of the prancing horse, you know that he was just one of the best EVER drivers to ever grace the circuit. Driving the same machine as his team-mate Massa, he was able to shrink the 70 seconds lead to only 24 at the end.
Schumacher showed the world that no matter what, if you are determined, you can do the impossible, there arent many out there that could just start from the rear and win the race, but Schumi can........................
The Legend -
Michael Schumacher
I am hereby dedicating this entry to my all time favourite driver/hero - Michael Schumacher
,
