Unhappy Schumacher stays philosophical

The Ferrari driver, winner in Imola and the Nurburgring, was unable to match the pace of his Renault rival and had to settle for second place, despite the French squad claiming before the race that they were worried about the Italian squad's race pace.

Schumacher started the race from third position and ran behind Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella until the first round of pitstops.

During that period, Alonso opened a significant gap that Schumacher did not managed to erase.

The Ferrari driver, however, said running behind Fisichella had nothing to do with not being able to challenge Alonso.

"It didn't have anything to do with that and Fisichella was going at a certain pace at certain times that I could not match," said Schumacher. "The weekend started well for us and went away from us, which we have to look into. We have to look at the reasons why.

"If you consider the amount of fuel we carried, it would have been easy to take pole and at the Nurburgring it worked out but not today. We were not quick enough."

Schumacher was philosophical after Alonso extended his lead to 15 points in the championship.

"It is eight points and you have to understand at certain times what is possible and what is not possible, you have to rely on you package and it didn't work out today," he added.

"There is a long way to go in the season, so while I was not happy to gain only four points in the last two races I am happy to lose only two points."