F1 icon Michael Schumacher faced world rally champion in one-off racing event and the result was fascinating

Michael Schumacher once took on rally legend Sebastien Loeb in a special Race of Champions event - with a fascinating outcome.

Prior to his 2013 skiing incident, Schumacher was a regular competitor at the Race of Champions for team Germany.

Held annually, the event sees a host of stars from across the world of motorsport compete on a specially-designed circuit, using pre-determined equal cars.

Two drivers from each nation are traditionally entered into the event, though the host nation will often be granted an additional team.

Each race is held over one full lap and features two drivers up against each other, with each driver assigned a lane that they stay in for the entire lap.

Elevation changes mean that the two cars overlap at certain points of the circuit.

Schumacher won the individual event on two occasions in 2007 and 2009, with team Germany - consisting of the seven-time F1 champion and future four-time champion Sebastian Vettel - winning the Nations' Cup every year between 2007 and 2012.

Back in 2004, in a break from tradition, reigning F1 champion Schumacher took on Loeb, the reigning World Rally Champion, in a special race.

The race, dubbed the 'World Champions Challenge', saw the two legends compete over one lap in a best-of-three format, using equal machinery.

Schumacher technically had an advantage as the individual event was split into the racing and rallying groups - with the German's group using the car in the quarter-final of their bracket.

Coincidentally, Schumacher faced his future Ferrari F1 team-mate Felipe Massa, setting a time of 1:45.6 to defeat the Brazilian by almost 10 seconds after he received a penalty.

Up against Loeb, Schumacher was marginally slower in the first of three races, but his time of a 1:46.7 was enough to beat his rival by just over a tenth of a second.

In the second race, the German beat his own quarter-final time by setting a 1:43.6, but it was Loeb who was even quicker with a 1:43.3 to level the contest.

That meant it all boiled down to the final sprint - which was a far more dominant affair.

Schumacher set a blistering time of 1:41.8246 - the fastest lap of any driver over the weekend - to beat Loeb's time of 1:42.7484 and become the inaugural 'World Champions Challenge' winner.

You can watch the conclusion of the race below.

Now 51, Loeb is a record-setting seven-time winner at the Race of Champions across both the individual and team events.

At the 2025 edition in Sydney, Loeb won the individual event and then the Nations' Cup alongside French team-mate Victor Martins, who races in Formula 2.

He is a nine-time winner of the World Rally Championship, incredibly winning all of his titles consecutively between 2004 and 2012.