Second means nothing to me, says DC

The Scot has never finished second in the championship, but has had a string of third places behind Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Damon Hill during his career. He finished third from top in 1995, '97, '98 and 2000.

But as he faces a four-race fight with Williams-BMW's Ralf Schumacher and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello to achieve another landmark in his career, he said winning is the only thing that means anything to him.

"I don't feel any emotion about finishing second," he said after seeing Schumacher wrap up his fourth world title in Hungary and his wafer thin title hopes finally disappear. "I only want to win. It makes no difference to me whether I am second, third, or fourth. What is important to me is how I perform in each individual race.

"Providing I know I have given 100 percent effort myself, which isn't always the case but is the goal, I can't do more," he said. "It is not just your individual performances which decide where you finish in the championship."

The Scot finished third in the race and the points gap is now so big he cannot make it up in the final four races.

"I think I drove to the maximum today," he said. "We clearly didn't have a car that was quick like the Ferrari.

"We had a lot more oversteer and almost made it work in the case of overtaking Rubens [for second], but you can't drive around those sort of problems. The best we could hope for was second."

The Scot said he was still puzzled as to why he lost second place to Barrichello in the second pit stops, having taken it in the first.

"I don't understand where we lost the time - whether it was my in lap or whether the fuel nozzle was on a bit longer," he said. "There was no way I was going to be able to compete with Michael once the start was done. And even then I don't know if it would have been possible."

"I was just on the dirty side, and you could hear from the way Michael's car was using traction and the way mine was that he had more grip. There was less grip where I was. I think my reaction away from the lights was good.

"There is nothing you can do in that situation. The Ferrari was the best car."