Schuey not happy with sixth spot

The German suffered another incident-packed day on Saturday, which included an off-track excursion into the gravel this morning. In the afternoon, he was unable to match the pace of his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who will start third.

"The handling of my car was not ideal this afternoon, so like yesterday, this was not one of my best qualifying runs," said Schumacher. "I lost time in the second sector and things just did not work out the way I would have liked. Sixth place is not great for the start, especially with the Williams on the front row.

"However, from a championship point of view, Raikkonen is alongside me so that is not too bad. We know that our car performs well in terms of consistency over a long run, so we will have to wait and see how things develop. As usual, I will try my best."

Ferrari's technical chief, Ross Brawn, was upbeat, however: "All in all, it was a good qualifying session. I don't think we could have beaten the Williams, but I still feel we are in a strong position for the race.

"Our tyres seem to be consistent, which means we can face tomorrow afternoon with confidence. Having secured third place, Rubens will be able to get away from the clean side of the track. Michael did not get a good second sector, otherwise he would have been much nearer the front."