Schuey ready for British battle

The German was third quickest in the second free practice session at Silverstone behind McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella. He and team-mate Rubens Barrichello had dominated the first session, but their rivals fought back in the second to make Schumacher aware that it won't be an easy ride this weekend as he hunts his 10th win of the season.

"It was a slightly different Friday to the usual for us due to the fact that we expected rain in the second session, so we set ourselves a bigger workload in the morning," he said. "Overall, I am quite happy with our performance today. We know the competition is tough with some of them looking very strong today. However, I believe we will be in the fight for the win. Now we have to work out the best way to go about achieving that."

After heading the timesheets in the first session, Barrichello slipped down to sixth in the second. But the Brazilian is confident he can find the extra tenths before Saturday's all-important qualifying session.

"This morning's session was very straightforward, but in the afternoon, I encountered a few problems while evaluating the tyres," he said. "However, we have a good base line in terms of the set-up of the car to suit this track and I am sure that a bit more work tomorrow morning will get us back on track."

Technical chief Ross Brawn was satisfied with the day's work and is confident for the rest of the weekend. "From what we could see, the Bridgestone tyres are working well and performing very consistently," he said. "We still have to find the best balance on Rubens' car when running new tyres, while the situation is looking pretty good on worn ones. I think we can be reasonably optimistic about the rest of the weekend."