Monteiro targets Schumacher reliability record.

Tiago Monteiro may have established himself in the Formula One record book this season, but is already targeting another mark as the campaign draws to a close in China this weekend.

With his Formula One future still far from settled as Jordan becomes Midland and other drivers are touted as possible candidates for the 2006 season, Monteiro is keen to not only post a reminder to those teams with vacancies but also beat one of Michael Schumacher's many F1 records at the final round.

To date, the only retirement in 18 races for the Jordan driver has been down to mechanical failure and, having already toppled triple world champion Jackie Stewart's 40-year old mark for the number of consecutive races finished by a rookie driver, he is hoping that the Toyota-powered EJ15B holds together for another 56 laps on Sunday to take him past Schumacher and into the record books - although he is not saying as much.

"There are many good reasons to concentrate on this last race weekend of the year," the Portuguese ace explained, "but I want to think only about the race. We will have time to look at the statistics later, and to record their meaning. My objective will be, above all, to finish the race and improve my position in the drivers' classification."

On the eve of the Chinese Grand Prix, Monteiro shares the record for the number of races finished in one season at 17 with Rubens Barrichello and seven-time world champion Schumacher, so one more chequered flag would break that tie, while the Jordan driver also has his eye on another possible mark, having been the only driver in the series this year to have completed 1000km in a single race weekend.

"Why not chase the record for the most number of kilometres completed during a GP weekend?" he asked, "It's the reflection of great experience and, although my team has had a very limited budget in comparison to the best teams this year, it will make a point of rewarding my engineers, technicians, mechanics, partners and supporters."