Michael Schumacher has written off his chances of winning an unprecedented eighth world championship after retiring from the lead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Ferrari ace was on course for a victory that would have given him a two-point advantage over Fernando Alonso going into the season finale in Brazil.

But his engine blew up 17 laps from home, handing Alonso the win and an almost unassailable 10-point lead.

Schumacher declared afterwards that his title chances are now over, and said his focus at Interlagos would be to win the constructors’ crown for Ferrari.

“The drivers’ title for me is finished, but we go to Brazil to win the constructors’,” he told reporters at Suzuka.

“Today we all tried hard, we were first but lost the engine.

“That’s Formula 1. I’m not too disappointed. Life and racing is like this.”

Improbable as it may be, Schumacher can still pip Alonso at the post if he were to win in Brazil with the Spaniard failing to finish.

The pair would then be level on points and Schumacher would be champion on the strength of one more race win.

But the 37-year-old German, who will bow out of Formula 1 after the Interlagos race, discounted that possibility as too remote to be considered.

Moreover, he said he did not want to rely on his rival’s misfortune to clinch the title.

“This is not really the way I want to go to Brazil – I would like to fight for the championship on the track,” he said.

“I don’t want to believe in me winning and my opponent not scoring one point, or not finishing.

“That is not the basis I want to go into the race with.”

Rather than bemoaning his misfortune, Schumacher hailed Ferrari’s achievement in taking the fight to Alonso and Renault after a poor start to the year.

“We must be very proud of the work we’ve done, because in Canada we were 25 points behind, and neither you or others thought we’d come back – but we did,” he said.

“Now we are here, nine points behind in the constructors’.