Schumacher closes in on Barrichello record

Upon arriving at Spa-Francorchamps village prior to the event, the Mercedes veteran was met with a poster demanding: "Michael, make it 400."

At Spa he will move to within a century of races from that unprecedented goal as he becomes only the second driver to reach a triple century after former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Yet though Schumacher's legion of fans would dearly love to see him go much further than beating the Brazilian's record 326 races, the seven-time world champion - who has made a career out of smashing records - was the first to admit that the 400-race mark might be beyond even his limits.

The 43-year-old said: "It's obviously nice that the fans are still with me and encourage me to go on. For the 400? We probably say no for that one."

Schumacher has long held that Spa is his favourite track and, after being made an honorary citizen, he revealed his delight at making the milestone in Belgium.

The 91-time race winner added: "That is something very special to me. And that's why the 300 becomes special - because it's in Spa. It all happened to me here in Spa."

Standings leader Fernando Alonso believes he is not the favourite to lift the title.

The Ferrari driver curently sits top of the shop with a 40-point cushion between him and nearest rival Mark Webber.

But with just eight points covering the Australian, team-mate and reigning double world champion Sebastian Vettel, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus, Alonso believes the title race is far from over.

"When you stop for four or five weeks and you have a chance to look at the classification you can see we have a good advantage," said Alonso.

"But two or three bad races can see you lose everything, and in terms of performance, from the guys at the front we are clearly the slowest. We have a points advantage, but a performance disadvantage, so I don't think we are any favourite."