Ferrari aim to bounce back in Australia

Both Schumacher and teammate Felipe Massa were hindered by engines problems during the weekend, the German forced to change his unit after Friday's practice.

Massa was worse off and had to replace his engine twice before the race. The changes meant the Ferrari duo had to start from far back on the grid.

Both men recovered well from their poor starting positions with Schumacher, starting from 14th, finishing in sixth, behind Massa.

"We can accept this result, considering everything that has happened over the weekend," said Schumacher. "I don't think that we could have achieved much more. On my second stint I wasn't as quick as I was on my first and third one, so now we need to understand the reasons why.

"All things said and done, the race went basically as I had expected even if one always hopes for something more. During the closing stages of the race I was not able to get past Felipe because I just wasn't fast enough and he didn't make any mistakes.

"This track has always been one of the most difficult for us. Melbourne is a completely different circuit and I hope that it will be better suited to our 248 F1."

Massa outshone teammate Schumacher's run from 14th on the grid, the Brazilian going on to finish in fifth after having started in last place. It was Massa's first points with Ferrari after finishing in ninth in Bahrain.

"I'm very pleased with this result and I would like to thank the team for an excellent job," said Massa. "To start from the last row and end up fifth is a good result. Our strategy worked well and I was able to make a good start.

"During the race I was able to push a bit more at the right moment knowing that during the other phases I would have needed to play more of a waiting game.

"I lost quite a bit of time behind some of the slower cars but when I had a free track I was able to improve my rhythm keep a good pace. It was a difficult race but finishing fifth gives me that extra bit of motivation for the next races where I hope to be able and compete with the front runners."