Feature: Schumacher Aims to End 2002 on a High

Michael Schumacher intends to cap a record-breaking Formula One season by going flat out for victory at Sunday's final Japanese Grand Prix.

Ferrari's World Champion may have inadvertently gifted teammate Rubens Barrichello victory at the last race in America in a backfiring attempt to engineer a photo-finish, but it will not happen again.

After consternation and dismay at Ferrari's antics at Indianapolis nine days ago, Schumacher is not about to let the Brazilian collect a third win in a row. The German has won for the last two years at Suzuka and wants a hat-trick to celebrate his 11th win of 2002.

"After all it is the last race of the season and therefore I would love to win and leave for the winter break with a victory," he said before leaving for Japan.

"I really like that track," he added of Suzuka. "We at Ferrari have always been traditionally pretty good there. Suzuka was always a good track for us."

The five times World Champion is unlikely to be distracted either by the clamour for something to be done to end Ferrari's domination, possibly by handicapping his car with a weight penalty in future. He already has plenty of positives to consider.

Schumacher's win in Belgium last month made him the first driver to take 10 victories in a single season and another would stretch a handful of other records. His current points tally of 134 is already a record for one year and he is poised to become the first driver to finish an entire season on the podium.

Fifty Poles

Another pole would be the 50th of his career and victory for either Schumacher or Barrichello would allow Ferrari to equal McLaren's 1988 record of 15 wins in a season. Although Ferrari are the runaway favourites, McLaren and Williams will not be giving up without a fight.

Schumacher noted that McLaren in particular had demonstrated an improvement at Indianapolis, with David Coulthard third, and sounded a wary note.

"The advantage over McLaren was substantially less than in the previous races," he said.

Williams took second place at Suzuka last year with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya but played down their chances against a team seeking their 10th win in succession and fifth one-two in a row.

"I would be surprised if we could be close to Ferrari in Japan," said Montoya.

"We are under no illusions that the track will suit the Ferrari," added BMW Motorsport boss Gerhard Berger. "Closing this gap requires a quantum technical leap. The end of the season will be welcomed so everybody can concentrate on preparations for 2003."

Montoya, teammate Ralf Schumacher and Coulthard are fighting for third place in the Championship with Ralf also chalking up the 100th start of his career. While the titles were wrapped up long ago, some teams are still jockeying for position in the standings.

Honda-powered rivals Jordan and British American Racing arrive at the Honda-owned circuit level on points and just one behind sixth placed Jaguar. Toyota can still overtake Minardi for ninth place.

Farewell Appearances

Some drivers, such as Toyota's Mika Salo and Allan McNish, will be making farewell appearances while Jaguar's Eddie Irvine has an unclear future.

Sunday's race could be the last for Irvine, who made his debut at Suzuka in 1993 and famously became embroiled in a pitlane punch-up with Brazilian Ayrton Senna.

Brazilian Felipe Massa returns to Sauber for a last race before being replaced, while Briton Jenson Button says goodbye to Renault before moving to BAR.