A new legend in grand prix history

The 77 turgid, soporific laps of yesterday's Hungarian Grand Prix may have represented the dross that a long attritional Formula One campaign can occasionally throw up, but from the detritus of a hot Budapest afternoon, Michael Schumacher lifted the ultimate in glittering prizes, his fourth world championship and his team's second constructors' title in a row. And all achieved with four races in hand.

This year's Hungarian race, like so many before it, will hardly be remembered as a competitive event. But while the hot and dusty circuit's twists and turns couldn't provide more than a processional march through a series of pit-stop passing manoeuvres to the chequered flag, it did give the sport a new legend - Schumacher. His matching of Alain Prost's career total and his closing on Juan Manuel Fangio's five world titles was achieved with minimum fuss yet maximum force. Schumacher was devastating. It was all so easy, yet crushingly hard for his and Ferrari's faltering rivals.

"It has been a beautiful feeling all weekend. I was not too happy coming here and I said to Jean (Todt, technical director) that I was not sure this would happen here. But then I got the pole and won the race and the 51 wins and the title. It's a bit too much for me to take at the moment."

The achievement was spiced by team-mate Rubens Barrichello's second place. "I am very proud," said the Brazilian. "After everything people have said, I'm having a wonderful season. I'm really proud to be his team-mate and to be part of the party. It's a fantastic achievement. It's not just coincidence that when I joined the team we won all the time."

Not so proud, was third-placed David Coulthard, the McLaren driver, whose challenge to Schumacher has slowly evaporated over the course of the last two months. " I don't feel any emotion for finishing second, I only want to win," said the Scot when asked if he would be content with a runner-up spot to Schumacher in four races' time.

While Schumacher was basking in the warm glow of his ultimate victory, Jordan were again slipping into a dark morass of disappointment.

New recruit Jean Alesi managed 10th from 12th in the unfamiliar EJ11, but Jarno Trulli, expected to this week announce his racing intentions for next year, was hampered by a fuel nozzle problem in his first pit stop which dropped him from his superb qualifying position of fifth to 10th and then was further insulted by a hydraulic failure which forced him into retirement on lap 55.