Schumy the Great

The scene was like a medieval coronation, or a take from a Cecil B. DeMille movie. As the red-clad multitude waved banners decorated with the heraldic device of a prancing horse, a tumult of braying horns hailed the king as he sallied forth. But instead of a bloodstained battlefield the crowd filled a different kind of combat zone, the track at the Hungaroring near Budapest, to celebrate the latest victory of Michael Schumacher, monarch of every race circuit he surveys.

The homage was fitting for the driver who has dominated...