On This Day: Schumacher scores first podium behind Mansell in Mexico

Michael Schumacher scored the first of his record 155 podium finishes in Mexico on this day in 1992. Racing for Benetton, Schumacher followed the dominant Williams duo of Riccardo Patrese and Nigel Mansell home at the Mexican Grand Prix - the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez's last race for 23 years.

After being controversially signed by Benetton on the back of his impressive debut in Spa with Jordan the year prior, Schumacher began the 1992 season with a fourth-place finish in South Africa.

The Williams FW14B was a beast of a machine - Mansell would go on to win the drivers' title with four races to spare, winning nine of the 16 races on the calendar.

As such, it was little surprise to see the Briton qualify on pole and streak away for victory in Mexico City.

The battle for honours behind him was largely mundane, team-mate Patrese took an easy second, with Schumacher converting his third place in qualifying into a podium finish.

No-one could have known at the time how routine seeing the German take to the podium would become.

Only Lewis Hamilton and Alain Prost have reached three figures for podiums at the time of writing, although Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso enter the 2018 season-opener in Australia on 99 and 97 top-three finishes respectively, with Kimi Raikkonen nine away from a century.

Schumacher raced a lonely race in Mexico, an anticipated from Ayrton Senna behind him fizzled out when the McLaren suffered transmission failure and his Benetton team-mate Martin Brundle also dropped out with engine failure, having qualified fourth.

As Mansell dominated, Schumacher kept Patrese honest despite giving up numerous technological disadvantages.

A first victory came in Spa later in the year, Schumacher ending the season third in the standings, just three points adrift of Patrese, but his total of 53 was dwarfed by Mansell's supreme 108.