08/10/02: Michael Schumacher intends to cap a record-breaking Formula One season by going flat out for victory in Sunday's final Japanese Grand Prix.

Ferrari's world champion may have inadvertently gifted team mate 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.

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.