Schumacher hopes experience helps

Schumacher and title rival Fernando Alonso go into the penultimate round of the championship tied on points, with the German in front thanks to having scored one more win than the Renault driver.

The seven-time champion could clinch the title this weekend if he wins the Japanese Grand Prix and Alonso fails to score, although he has admitted he is under no illusions of that happening.

However, Schumacher believes his bigger experience in down-to-the-wire title battles could help him.

"Sure I've been in this situation for many, many years so I know pretty much how to handle it," Schumacher told reporters at Suzuka today. "It is not the first time. I have enough experience. I have been around for 16 years so I hope it works out."

The Ferrari driver has won five of the last seven races to erase a 25-point gap to Alonso, who has not climbed onto the top step of the podium since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Despite his run towards the top of the championship table, Schumacher believes Ferrari and Renault are very evenly matched, although he reckons the Italian squad should be more competitive than in China.

"I didn't see that we have the clear advantage," Schumacher added. "I said we should be looking good, maybe slightly better than we did in China. China wasn't that great for us in a way, so we hope to go better here.

"This track is one of the most favourites and unfortunately at Spa we didn't race this year but I am very happy. The weather for the weekend should improve but even for the wet we have done certain things.

"But we come here with a lot of motivation and a lot of good feeling because we believe this track will be better for us than China."