The Spa circuit has always been special for Michael Schumacher - he even calls it his 'living room'. He has won there an unprecedented six times, he made his Formula One debut there back in 1991 with Jordan, and he scored his first Grand Prix win exactly ten years ago, showing the world what could be expected of him in the following years. Atlas F1's Will Gray recalls the beginning of Schumacher's domination era

Just more than a decade ago, under drizzly overcast clouds, a young German jumped onto the top step of the Spa-Francorchamps podium after claiming an impressive and cleverly thought out win.

The German in question, Michael Schumacher, marked his first moment of glory with another special moment last weekend by breaking his own and Nigel Mansell's record number of victories in a season, testament to the talents he has drawn from that very first success.

Even then, with Schumacher just 23 years of age, the signs of greatness could be seen and as a fresh-faced and semi-drenched fan standing in the crowd on that memorable day, it was clear the world had seen something special. The excitement he showed as he jumped around on the podium while being soaked with his own winner's champagne, was clear for all to see. So too was the tactical mind which has helped him ever since he arrived on the Grand Prix scene.

But thoughts then that Schumacher would go on to obliterate nearly all the records in Grand Prix history were still unimaginable - a single man to dominate in such a way for such a long time? Never. Not even he had considered it.

"I remember thinking yes, my best days are ahead, this is starting for a very good future," Schumacher recalled in a similarly overcast and misty Spa paddock last weekend. "But nobody could have expected how it would all turn out."

Perhaps things would have been different had the great Ayrton Senna not died tragically at Imola less than two years later, before any real rivalry had ever been able to emerge. Senna's death, in fact, paved the way for the star of the future to become the star of the day, and, left with a field arguably lacking any truly talented opposition, he went on to immediately snap up back-to-back Championships for Benetton.

In fact, in the ten years since Schumacher's memorable success he has secured five titles, the most recent with Ferrari in the last three seasons, as well as a further 62 victories - winning nearly 40 percent of the races he has attended - and another 885 points.

The dominant German has made his mark as one of the most successful Grand Prix drivers ever and has summited every podium around the world on the Grand Prix calendar. But for many reasons, his debut victory at Spa laid very clear pointers to the future trends that would map out his career - luck and strategic judgement.

His teammate at the time, Martin Brundle still remembers the day when Schumacher, after a small mistake which dropped him behind the second Benetton, took advantage of the slip-up and went on to cruise home to victory.

"He was very lucky," Brundle recalled. "But it was one of those twists of fate and it was clever. He's always had his brain engaged at all times. He went wide and the front wing was very low on the Benetton. How he didn't lose his front wing, I'll never know. I was going to come in for tyres that lap, we'd all been running on wets for the whole race.

"But his mistake moved me up to third and the Williams was just down the road so I decided to leave it one more lap. He came in, I think because he had nothing to lose at that point. And he ended up winning the race. I think it's just a small example of how he makes the difference. It's that presence of mind that keeps you focused on what you're doing rather than go off into 'how did I make that mistake' or whatever.

Pat Symonds, currently with Renault, was Schumacher's race engineer at Benetton that year, and to him, Schumacher is dominating the 2002 season because he has honed those skills he showed on that day in Spa ten years ago to a point where his talents are almost flawless.

"It epitomised what he is all about," Symonds said of the 1992 victory. "He made some good strategic decisions and he had a bit of luck. But we were not surprised when it happened. It was always on the cards."

That much was clear from the results Schumacher had posted for his Benetton team in the 11 races of the 1992 season before that Spa race. A record of two seconds, three thirds and three fourths said it all. His inevitable victory came one year after he made his debut for Jordan and his points haul was already an impressive tally for a driver with less than a full season of Grand Prix racing under his belt.

But for Schumacher, it mattered more that his maiden Grand Prix victory had seen him beat all his major rivals in a straight fight, using both his mind and his pure racing ability to eek out a surprise result.

"The great thing about it was that none of the established drivers of the time had been forced to leave the race," he recalled before his latest successful trip to Spa this year, which saw him underline his impressive abilities around the undulating track.

Symonds was Senna's race engineer for the Brazilian's debut season in Formula One, with Toleman eight years before Schumacher's debut win, and he spotted slight similarities between the two drivers. He immediately knew Benetton had got their hands on a future star.

"It was absolutely obvious in both of them," Symonds recalled. "The only driver Michael compared with was Ayrton - but the only parallel was that I was with them for their first year in Formula One. What I did know was that he was a driver of the same sort of ilk as Ayrton - but you could never predict what he is doing today."

Schumacher has, this year, continued his demolition derby through the sport's record books in much the same way as American Tiger Woods has in golf and Italian Valentino Rossi has in motorcycle racing. All three are sporting stars in their prime.

Considering his continued domination of the 2002 season and his five previous victories at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the five-time World Champion was always an odds-on favourite for last Sunday's race. It was at Spa where, last year, with his 52nd career victory, he passed Alain Prost's seemingly out-of-reach record number of wins - and he has gone on to put that record even further out of reach.

But it was his 1996 Spa victory, which came at a time when Ferrari were in the doldrums, that perhaps means more than any of his other wins for the dominant Italian scuderia.

"We had a bad series behind us and the atmosphere at Ferrari was at its lowest point," said Schumacher. "If I had to name a really critical moment in my time at Ferrari that would perhaps be it."

Last weekend's dominant success saw Schumacher claim his first ever pole at the forested circuit and he extended a lead of more than 25 seconds on the other Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, let alone the rest of the field, before cruising to an impressive victory.

Few could recall a race at Spa as tedious as the one last Sunday. Few could recall a performance so clinically perfect. But no matter what people say about the dominance of Schumacher and Ferrari, this year, Spa offered the chance to view a man at his peak pushing to his limit on a true racer's track. He certainly taught all his rivals a lesson.