IT'S ALL down to two drivers and two teams as the 17-race Formula One World Championship enters its penultimate clash in Japan on Sunday.

On top by eight points - with a win worth ten - is Ferrari's Michael Schumacher who has enjoyed seven race victories this season, but four retirements, and wants the title not only for himself but the prancing horse team which hasn't had a champion for two decades.

Chasing him is McLaren's Mika Hakk-inen who wants the title for an outstanding personal triple. Hakkinen puts his hopes of a hat-trick on the line in Japan on Sunday, declaring: "Pressure, what pressure?"

The Finn has to win the race at Suzuka to stand any realistic chance of becoming only the second man in history to win the drivers' crown three years in succession.

But as he heads into the penultimate grand prix of the 17-race season trailing Ferrari's Michael Schumacher by eight points he insists he is not feeling the heat.

"The pressure is not traumatic," said Hakkinen. "People might not understand what I am saying, but this is a grand prix and anything can still happen.

"The difference in one sense is quite a lot, but on the other hand it is not that much when you look what happened to me at the last grand prix.

"The situation could be a lot worse so I am still confident about the situation."

Hakkinen, who failed to finish the last race in Indianapolis when his McLaren-Mercedes' engine failed, added: "When you have to retire it is very traumatic, but I have to get over it.

"At this stage of the season all the points from one to ten are very important.

"I am definitely looking at the next two races, but I come to this grand prix prepared and confident.

"The mission is to try and get the best out of the car and myself and try to win it."

But Schumacher is determined to wrap up the drivers' title - Ferrari's first for 21 years and his first since retaining the crown with Benetton in 1995 - without the need of the final race in Malaysia two weeks on Sunday.

"I would rather finish it here," said the German, who has won the last two races. "We are on a good run and we are confident.

"I have to fight for a normal race victory here to win the championship. I am not thinking about the lead because we never know what will happen in the last race."

Watch out too for another past F1 champion, BAR-Honda's Jacques Villeneuve, who loves the track and is eager for his team's first podium finish on Honda's home ground after a close thing in the US.

Of the Britons, David Coulthard must be the top hope, although young Jenson Button, with his Southampton-based management company, has shown he can give any of the old hands a run for their money.