Schuey targets David - not winnning

The world champion, who starts fourth in his Ferrari, believes front row starters Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher will be too fast to catch if Williams-BMW can repeat its qualifying form on raceday.

"I'm not in a position to fight for the win because the gap is rather big compared to other circuits," he said.

Instead he has turned his attention to his only championship contender - DC in the McLaren-Mercedes.

"If they are as good as they were in qualifying Williams will walk away with it," said Schumacher. "So I'm keeping my eyes on Coulthard. As long as the two guys up front disappear and take away the points, then even if I'm behind them but ahead of David I won't be too concerned. As long as he is behind me it doesn't matter who wins. But it's still going to be a difficult race.

"Looking at Mika's performance, David is sure to be strong again in the race. He had a problem in qualifying which maybe he can solve because as you can see Mika is very competitive. I must take the view that tomorrow he will be competitive too.

"I agree with Ross (Brawn, Ferrari technical director) that the championship is ours unless we throw it away - and we are not planning to do that.

"To some degree everybody knew this circuit would suit BMW and Williams, so in that respect the situation is not unexpected, although the gap is. The surprising thing is that they are so far ahead. Otherwise everything else is in a kind of order, with Hakkinen so close to me, then David and Rubens.

"If Williams keep this performance going in the race then I expect them to disappear into the distance. There's nothing we can do unless we get a little bit of rain!

"It would be nice to equal the record here," he added. "But when you see the circumstances, you have to live with what you can do. We will not give up until the final flag is down. But it's not a worry or a problem if I can't do it here."

In the title battle, Schumacher leads Coulthard by 37 points, with 60 still up for grabs from the six remaining races.