Monaco parking, matching Fangio and up close: Our favourite Schumacher moments

There was a time during the late 1990s and early 2000s whereMichael Schumacher was one of the most famous athletes on theplanet. You had your Tiger Woods' your Wayne Gretzkys, your LanceArmstrongs (before he admitted to doping). Schumacher was amongthat rare-brand of athlete known even by those with just a passinginterest in sport. That's what five straight titles in that RossoCavalino Rampante will do for you. Sadly though, Schumacher has notbeen seen in public for a decade, since suffering severe headinjuries in a skiing accident on December 29th, 2013. Today is the10th anniversary of that, and so the RacingNews365 team haveselected our favourite Schumacher moments. Let us know in thecomments what your favourite Michael Schumacher moment is! JakeNichol - Monaco qualifying 2006 Keke Rosberg called it the"dirtiest" thing he'd ever seen in F1 and Sir Jackie Stewart evensuggested he be banned from the race, but for me, my favouriteSchumacher moment has to be his parking attempt in qualifying forthe 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. On pole after the provisional runs inQ3, Schumacher was 0.190s down on his best time through Sector 2 onthe second lap as Fernando Alonso was on a pole lap behind. So,rounding Rascasse, Schumacher rather pathetically locked up andstumbled into the barrier, but not quite making contact. Theresult, yellow flags were deployed and Alonso could not take poleas Dick Dastardly himself did. After investigating the stewardschucked Schumacher out and made him start at the back as Alonsowon. The reason this sticks in my mind is simply because I love theaudacity of a driver who is prepared to dabble in the dark arts andgo beyond that limit to try and win. Whether you agree with whatSchumacher did, you can't help but admire the mindset of: 'I'm notgoing to let you beat me, because I'm just better than you.'Essentially it was a harmless action that only backfired andbrought harm to Schumacher himself - just as Dastardly and hissidekick Mutley would often suffer in Wacky Races. You can alsothrow in the title-deciding collisions with Damon Hill (1994) andJacques Villeneuve (1997). The nerve to try and take the other guyout to win the title goes against every natural instinct of aracing driver but to actually try it (and be successful once)deserves a little respect, if not agreement. Away from Grand Prixracing, who can ever forget when Schumacher appeared as The Stig onTop Gear in 2009? It's the most iconic moment in theClarkson-Hammond-May era and was only possible as Ferrari refusedto allow regular Stig Ben Collins to drive the Ferrari FXX. FergalWalsh - Matching Fangio For 45 years, Juan Manuel Fangio's recordof five World Championships stood untouched. Alain Prost cameclosest to besting the Argentine but retired from F1 at the end of1993 with four titles to his name, having narrowly missed out ontaking a handful more. The year following Prost's final season inF1, Schumacher won his first title (albeit in controversialcircumstances) with the Benetton team. Another title followed ayear later before he opted to make a switch to Ferrari, and it wasat the Italian squad where the German gained his notoriety forbeing one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen. Afterprevailing in the 2000 and 2001 seasons (ending Ferrari's 19-yearDrivers' Championship drought), Schumacher entered the 2002campaign as the man to beat. However, no one could get close toSchumacher as he dominated the season to take 11 race wins and 17podiums, marking the only occasion to date that a driver hasfinished on the podium at every round during a season. Schumachersecured the title at the French Grand Prix with six races to go inthe season to set a new record for the shortest time in which aDrivers' Championship had been clinched, while also matchingFangio's title tally. He would, of course, go on to take two moreWorld Championships and make the record his own until it wasmatched by Lewis Hamilton in 2020. Rory Mitchell - Watching himlive It was an unusually cold and rather wet day at Silverstoneduring the 2012 British Grand Prix. Friday and Saturday hadresembled Glastonbury on TV, so it was not the most encouragingthing to be advised to wear wellington boots for my first GrandPrix in person. My dad had drove down from Liverpool to Silverstonein the early hours of the morning so we could catch all the acton;GP3, GP2, Porsches, Formula 1. Apart from the weather there was twoother things that stood out to me that day: the sound of the V8engines and seeing Michael Schumacher in the car. I'd grew up aSchumacher fanatic, so finally seeing him in his natural habitatwas a real privilege. The day-glow red helmet and gloves in theMercedes W03 with the unusual stepped nose were easy to spot, whilestanding on the National pit straight just after Woodcote.