Schumacher’s Monaco-winning Ferrari sells for record $7m

The car in which Michael Schumacher took his fifth and final Monaco Grand Prix victory in 2001 has sold at auction for $7,504,000, a record for a modern-era Formula 1 car.

The Ferrari F2001, chassis #211, which that season also helped power Schumacher to the fourth of his seven world titles, went under the hammer at the Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York.

It was the first time a car had been offered at a Sotheby’s art auction and a six-minute battle between eight bidders saw the scarlet machine almost double its pre-sale estimate of $4m.

Schumacher and Ferrari dominated the 2001 season, the German winning nine Grands Prix in total to finish the year with 123 points to championship runner-up David Coulthard’s 65.