I know Michael Schumacher has won the most GPs, but which drivers held the record before him? asked Robert Day
The first driver to win a world championship Grand Prix was Nino Farina, at Silverstone in 1950, and he was also the first to win two (Switzerland 1950). Juan Manuel Fangio was the first to win three (France 1950), and the first to get to every number up to six.
Alberto Ascari equalled Fangio in Germany in August 1952, and went ahead a fortnight later in Holland, with his seventh win. He took the record to 13 victories before his untimely death in 1955. Fangio got back on level terms in Italy in 1954, and went in front the following year with victory No. 14, at home in Argentina. By the time he retired he had taken this total to 24, his last win coming in Germany in 1957.
It was ten years before anyone equalled Fangio's haul, when Jim Clark won in Mexico. Clark went ahead by winning the first race of 1968 in South Africa - his 25th victory - but then was tragically killed.
Another Scotsman, Jackie Stewart, equalled Clark's mark in Monaco in 1973, and took his total to 27 before retiring at the end of that season, his last victory coming in Germany. And it would be almost 14 years before Stewart was toppled: Alain Prost equalled his record in Belgium in May 1987, and three months later went in front with win No. 28 in Portugal. Prost took his total to 51, his last win coming in Germany in 1993.
Michael Schumacher equalled that in Hungary in August 2001, and a fortnight later went in front with his 52nd victory, in Belgium. And he remorselessly extended his tally until October 2006, when his final win, in China, was the 91st of his career.
The current drivers with the most GP victories are Lewis Hamilton (third overall with 43), Sebastian Vettel (42), Fernando Alonso (32) and Kimi Raikkonen (20).