Schumacher Rules Out Williams Win at Silverstone

World Champion Michael Schumacher said on Friday he is not expecting the Williams team to fight for the win at Sunday's British Grand Prix.

Schumacher and the Ferrari team endured a "usual Friday" as the German made his way to the fourth quickest time of today's practice session behind his McLaren rivals and his teammate Rubens Barrichello.

Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were only eighth and 17th respectively. Despite having scored two victories so far this year and challenging for more in France and Germany, the elder Schumacher believes Williams won't be able to challenge Ferrari and McLaren this weekend.

"It won't be easy, but I expect that in this race we will see only two teams fighting for the win and not three as has been the case recently," Schumacher said. "We know we have a good car and that we are competitive. I am not thinking about the 51 wins, but certainly I feel on top form at the moment.

"It was the usual Friday job list," added Schumacher, who leads the Championship by a massive 31 wins after ten of the seventeen races. "The car was handling pretty well and to be honest I would have preferred to have had a longer run in the rain at the end of the session to evaluate the rain tyres."

Barrichello was third quickest behind the two McLarens, and the Brazilian, who scored pole position last season for Ferrari at Silverstone, admitted he was confident of a good weekend.

"The track conditions are slightly different to those we experienced at the test here last month," admitted Barrichello. "In the first hour today, the car's braking was not quite right, but in the break we did a lot of work and this afternoon’s times show we have made good progress.

"I am fairly optimistic for the rest of the weekend and I think we will be very competitive."