Brawn salutes his six-time champion

Schumacher achieved his required goal of scoring eighth place in Suzuka, but made life hard for himself by clipping Takuma Sato's BAR-Honda at the final chicane on lap six which removed his front wing.

"It was typical Michael, he always has to make an event out of it!" quipped Brawn. "We wanted to make sure that he scored a point today, even though we knew Rubens was in a position to win and prevent Kimi from doing so.

"Michael thought Sato had opened the door for him, but it became clear that he hadn't. Michael was exposed after that collision, so he had to be aggressive to get back into the points. He was mixing it with people which, with all due respect, we don't normally mix with."

Brawn also saluted Schumacher's achievement of eclipsing Fangio's record of five world championships, as well as the team effort behind its star turn.

"It's a dream end to the season," he said. "It's a beautiful team and great to be a part of it. I feel a bit numb at the moment - it was an amazing race and I need to come down! I haven't quite believed it yet."