Hours after paying his last respects to his dying mother in a Cologne hospital, Michael Schumacher stood on the podium with tears in his eyes as he received the winner’s trophy at the San Marino grand prix yesterday.
Schumacher, the world champion, and his younger brother Ralf, also a formula one driver, had flown by private jet to visit their mother on Saturday night. Elisabeth Schumacher, 55, was in a coma and suffering from severe internal bleeding, reportedly after a fall at her home a week earlier. She died a few hours after they left her side.
Yesterday morning the brothers were back at the Imola track and ready to start the race, the fourth round of the 2003 world championship. They had qualified for the first two places on the starting grid.
On Saturday they had been asked how they could manage to race while their mother’s life was in danger. ”Please don’t expect a reply,” Michael said. They made no further comment. The organisers released them from the need to participate in post-race ceremonies.
Ralf, 27, led the early stages of the race, but dropped back to finish fourth, leaving Michael, 34, to record an emphatic victory. As the chequered flag fell, the usual exuberance was entirely absent.
Before their separation in 1997, Elisabeth Schumacher and her husband Rolf ran a go-kart school in Kerpen, a small town outside Cologne, where the brothers began to develop their talent at an early age. With their active encouragement, Michael became the most successful racing driver of all time. Yesterday was the 65th victory of his career, and undoubtedly the saddest. – Guardian Unlimited