Race will be tighter, says Michael

The German collared his ninth pole of the season and the 41st of his career by 0.8 seconds - one of his biggest advantages all season - with David Coulthard second, team mate Rubens Barrichello third and Williams-BMW driver Ralf Schumacher fourth.

"I will honestly be surprised if we can maintain the advantage in the race, because I did not come here and expect that kind of gap," said Schumacher.

"We have very often seen this year that when you get everything perfectly right you can do this, and if the other side doesn't get everything perfectly right, then they can be quite a distance off. The gap is bigger than we have seen in the past sometimes."

Despite his massive 37 point lead, Schumacher says it will be difficult to remain calm as he scraps for his third and most important victory in Hungary.

If he wins, it will be the fastest title victory since Nigel Mansell triumphed in 1992 at the same track. Mansell did it with five races to spare, whereas Schumacher will have four more to go.

"We will try to be calm, but you can be sure it won't be as calm as you saw in qualifying," added the Ferrari ace. "We have often seen in qualifying that we have got it together, but races have been much tighter, so I do expect a very tight, competitive race from Rubens and DC.

"The spectators will see a good show and if possible we want to secure the championship. But to do that we need the 10 points.

"We did actually struggle a little bit in the first and the third sector. Yesterday we were fast in the mid sector all the time and today we got it together for all sectors.

"Today everything was perfect. I got a perfect lap in and that's what makes the difference. But tomorrow over a long distance it will be tighter, that's for sure."

Schumacher has 84 points, Coulthard 47, Ralf Schumacher 41 and Rubens Barrichello 40 with five rounds remaining including this race.