Lewis Hamilton scored a record 92 victory in Formula One at the Portuguese Grand Prix, walking away from Michael Schumacher for the most victories in the history of the sport.
Hamilton won from pole position at the Portimao Algarve International Circuit to become the independent record holder, having reached Schumacher’s level at the Eifel Grand Prix.
For comparison, Hamilton reached his current score in his 262nd F1 race. Schumacher reached the 91-win mark in his 247th outing, the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton said it will take a while to record the scale of achievement.
“It’s going to take some time to fully sink in,” Hamilton said. “I kept pushing hard all the way to the line. I’m still mentally in career mode. I can’t find the words right now.
“I could only have dreamed of being where I am today. I didn’t have a magic ball when I chose to come to this team and partner with these great people, but here I am.
“What I can tell you is that I try to make the most of it every day. Everything we do together, we are all going in the same direction and that’s really why you are seeing the success that we are having.
“We have my dad here, which is amazing and my stepmom Linda and Roscoe [Hamilton’s dog]. So it’s a very blessed day. “
The pair are comfortably far from the next drivers in the record books. After Hamilton and Schumacher, the next drivers on the list of all-time winners are Sebastian Vettel (53), Alain Prost (51), Ayrton Senna (41), Fernando Alonso (32), Nigel Mansell (31), Jackie Stewart (27), Jim Clark, Niki Lauda (both 25) and Juan Manuel Fangio (24).
Hamilton is also on track to claim a seventh world championship this season, which would move him to the level of the only significant record remaining on behalf of Schumacher.
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