When Michael Schumacher beat young reigning F1 champion Sebastian Vettel in the Race of Champions

Seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher got the better of former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel during the 2011 edition of Race of Champions in their home country. The popular event has been hosted for almost four decades and has seen several champions from different domains in motorsports compete.

The former Ferrari driver Schumacher started participating in the event after his retirement from the pinnacle of motorsport in 2006. He first competed in 2007 and continued until the 2012 season, which turned out to be his final appearance at ROC.

After guiding Germany to its fifth consecutive team's title with the recently-crowned two-time F1 world champion Vettel, during the individual events, Schumacher faced off against him in the makeshift track in the Espirit Arena in Dusseldorf during the quarterfinal stage.

In the knockout race, Michael Schumacher made the better start and had the measure of the young Red Bull driver during the halfway stage as he had an advantage of over four-tenths of a second. The 91-time F1 race winner continued his dominant performance on the track as he crossed the line to finish over a second ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Schumacher was eventually knocked out by Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen in the semifinal and failed to make the double in Dusseldorf.

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Sebastian Vettel's "last conversation" with Michael Schumacher

Four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel said his last conversation with his hero, seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher, was a positive one.

Speaking with RTL, the former Aston Martin F1 driver, who retired from the sport in 2022, said he missed his "friend".

“It’s still very, very difficult. I don’t want to say to accept it, but to accept that he continues to fight. Yes, of course, I only wish him the best. But it’s still very often a topic I think about privately and I think about a lot and that is definitely a recurring theme. Of course, the first thoughts immediately went to the last conversation we had together and that couldn’t be more positive," Sebastian Vettel said.

"I told him that I was going to be a father and what was coming for us. And I think I really appreciated it towards the end in that sense, where our relationship became stronger and stronger before the accident. Because I think we both got to know each other more and more and racing was no longer the biggest thing we had in common, but life in general and life with and around racing. And I just miss my friend."

Vettel and Schumacher raced together in F1 for three years from 2010 to 2012, with the former winning each time with Red Bull.