Schumacher Blames Set-Up for Lack of Pace

World Champion Michael Schumacher said on Saturday he struggled to set up his Ferrari for Monza and blamed a problem the team discovered on Saturday morning for his lack of pace in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

Schumacher, who is chasing his 13th victory of the season, qualified third and finished more than half a second off the pole time of his Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello.

"I was struggling a little bit more to find the right balance and set-up," said Schumacher. "We found a little problem this morning which we solved. We may not, from that time on, have had the possibility to optimise the set-up.

"Nevertheless I made something in the last corner which was my own fault, nothing to do with the set-up, and that cost me quite a lot of time but not enough to fight for the pole position, honestly."

Schumacher, who was looking to boost his tally of eight poles so far this season, looked despondent in the post-qualifying press conference but insisted there is still all to play for in Sunday's race.

"It's a tight matter," he said. "We are very close together here and it's still looking very good for the race tomorrow I am quite happy with it but Rubens just did a perfect lap and there was nothing I could do against that.

"We have a good chance tomorrow in the race to transform this into a good result so we obviously feel very happy and hopefully we can put the dot on the I and finish it off in style."

Today's qualifying result meant Schumacher will not be able to beat Ayrton Senna's record for most pole positions this year. Schumacher has 62 poles with three races remaining, while Senna's record is 65.