Schumacher

	Barrichello

INDIANAPOLIS -- A year ago, Michael Schumacher slowed on the final lap and let teammate Rubens Barrichello pass him to win the U.S. Grand Prix.

This year, there will be no similarly staged finish by Schumacher, not with just two races to go and Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen within seven points of his top spot in the Formula One standings.

Practice and qualifying for Sunday's race, run under a new scoring format prompted in part by Schumacher's runaway championship last year, begin on Friday.

"I don't think what happened in the past relates to this year. It's a new start, and we have to see what we can do," Schumacher said Thursday. "We have a good car, a good package. We've worked very intense and feel we're very well prepared."

Early last season, when the championship was still being contested, Barrichello -- under orders from the Ferrari team -- let Schumacher pass him on the final straightaway to win the Austrian Grand Prix.

Schumacher went on to clinch a record-tying fifth F1 title after 11 of the season's 17 races - the earliest the series had ever been decided. He appeared headed for his second victory in three years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but allowed Barrichello to catch up as they approached the finish as a payback for the earlier favor.

Schumacher has won five races this season, including the last one two weeks ago in Italy, but a change in scoring -- second through sixth place in each race receive two points more than in the past -- has helped keep the title chase close.

"It's exciting. It's good," said Schumacher, who comes in with 82 points, while Montoya has 79 and Raikkonen 75. "We're strong. We won the last race and obviously believe in ourselves. The rest, you take it as it comes and you do your best.

"I don't think the rules in itself make the situation as tight as it is right now," he said. "It obviously created some excitement in certain areas, but at the end of the day the reason why the competition is so tight is that simply the teams are much closer together than they have ever been."

	Michael Schumacher, right, let Rubens Barrichello catch him at the finish line at Indy in 2002.

Ferrari won 15 of the 17 races last year, 11 by Schumacher and four by Barrichello. This year, Montoya and Ralf Schumacher -- Michael's younger brother -- have each won two races for the BMW Williams team and five drivers have each won once.

The season will end with the Japanese Grand Prix on Oct. 12, and the championship likely will not be decided until then.

"There's a 3-point difference. If we can narrow the gap, that would be ideal," Montoya said. "We've got to fight to stay in contention with Michael and make sure Kimi doesn't get ahead of us either."

The winner will get 10 points, second place is worth 8, followed by 6-5-4-3-2-1.

Montoya, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000 before joining the Williams team, was 18th and fourth in his two previous F1 starts at Indy. Schumacher, starting from the pole all three years, won the 2000 U.S. Grand Prix and was second the past two years.

Raikkonen was 22nd and 17th in his two starts at Indianapolis.

"The car was quite good here last year, but I haven't finished a race here," Raikkonen said. "We just need to do our own things and try to be quicker than those two guys."

Another change this year is in qualifying, where the first session on Friday will merely determine the order for Saturday's qualifying. Each car will have one lap Saturday -- with the attempts made in the reverse order from Friday's fastest speeds -- to determine the starting grid.

"When you go out and start your qualifying lap, all you do is concentrate and you focus 100 percent on that. It has always been the same in the past," Schumacher said. "The difference is you had probably three or four shots in the past and now you have just the one. But my approach was always the same.

"The first shot was the most important and I had the same priority for all other moments," he said. "You don't think about it. You just do whatever you can."