Coulthard admits Euro GP win will be hard

The German starts on pole while Coulthard, his only real title rivals, starts fifth after struggling with balance problems.

The Scot desperately needs a victory to get back on terms with the world champion, who has leapt 18 points clear heading into the race that marks the start of the second half of the season. While McLaren-Mercedes has struggled with a string of problems this season Schumacher starts at the front for the seventh pole in nine races.

"I am not happy," admitted Coulthard. "It is much more difficult when you start a race from fifth and your main rival is on pole. But the race is not over until the chequered flag and we will be doing everything we can to win. I envisage us having a difficult race.

"We cannot extract the balance we want out of tyres in qualifying, and although it will be better in the race the gap we have to try and close to Ferrari is quite large."

Coulthard, eight-tenths of a second slower than Schumacher, ended qualifying parked by the side of the track after he slid off in his desperation to get on the front row. He said the problems earlier in the season were now coming back to haunt the team.

"If we had capitalised more when we were strong then it is not so bad when you have difficult days."

But his last line of defence rests in the hope that the flying form of his former team, Williams, will limit the damage.

"We have had problems and given away points, but Michael is beatable and perhaps Ralf will take some points off him tomorrow," he added.