Weber lied for Schuey's F1 drive

Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix is the tenth anniversary of the champion's Formula 1 debut at Spa when he stunned the sport by qualifying seventh.

Schumacher went on to become only the third man to win four world titles, he's equalled the record of 51 Grands Prix victories and set a record 43 fastest laps. Few records look beyond him except, perhaps, Ayrton Senna's 65 pole starts (Schumacher has 41). If Schuey wins on Sunday - the scene of his maiden victory in 1992 - he will have won more races than any driver in history.

But his Formula 1 career started under less illustrious circumstances when Weber persuaded team boss Eddie Jordan to put Schumacher in his car at Spa in 1991 after regular driver Belgian Gachot was jailed for spraying mace in a London taxi driver's face.

"Willi told Eddie [Jordan] I had driven at Spa in a sportscar because he wanted to make sure I got the drive," said Schumacher. "But it wasn't true. I had been around the Spa circuit - but only a couple of laps on a bicycle!"

Schumacher admitted it had not occurred to him that a front-running career lay ahead of him.

"I really didn't consider I would have the career I have done," he said. "I was hoping I might be able to run somewhere in midfield, but after I went to Spa, and then Monza a fortnight later with Benetton, I began to think things were looking good for me."

Nowhere has he been more successful than his favourite circuit Spa - the track closest to his childhood home in the tiny German village of Kerpen. Every time he has managed to finish the race in the past 10 years he has been in the top two, picking up four victories and two seconds places.

But rivals McLaren have won for the last two years - with David Coulthard winning in 1999 and Mika Hakkinen last year.