Alonso urges Renault to stay focused

Alonso, who only needs to score one point to guarantee himself the title, will start fourth with Schumacher down in 10th after suffering a fuel pump problem in qualifying.

But even though Schumacher's dramas means Alonso is now on the verge of his second successive crown, the Spaniard thinks he and his team still have plenty to worry about.

"I don't know what position Michael can get or what he can do but it's also not our problem," said Alonso. "In this moment I think we have the biggest concern and biggest worries in our team.

"We need to finish the race and do a good job and it's a very important race for us. We can get both championships and the whole weekend we are very concentrated and very focused on what we have to do.

"Everything is going well so far, but we cannot lose concentration or think of another matter than our team."

The biggest hurdle that Alonso has to overcome tomorrow is getting cleanly through the first corner - with the tight cambered left-hander often being the scene of incidents.

He has admitted that he will likely take it easy at the start if he feels he is too close to other cars - as he was in Suzuka when he diced with the two Toyotas in the first corners

"For sure if we start like at Suzuka, close to the Toyotas, I will not take the risk I took there in turn two. But if we start better than them, I will not lift off and let the people go. I will try to overtake all the people I can."

But after the first corner, Alonso thinks he will have to push hard - and that the only stage of the race he will be able to take it easy is in the closing stages.

"We will approach it as always, and try to be as normal as we can in the race, especially the first half

"It's a very special race so the last part of it, if we are in a comfortable position and we are in position to win the championship, we can for sure be conservative in terms of revs and mechanical things.

"But this will happen at the end of the race and not before. We have to fight and do our normal race."