Happy Ralf predicts tough race

The German Toyota driver, who announced this week that he will leave the team at the end of the year, will start the race from sixth position, his best qualifying performance since the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Despite that, Schumacher believes the race will be hard, especially with rain expected to hit the Shanghai circuit.

"Obviously we are happy with what we achieved today in qualifying," said Schumacher. "It was a decent session overall and the car felt good throughout, even if it was a bit more difficult to drive with the fuel on board in Q3. So I'm happy to have made it into the top six.

"Nonetheless it will be a tough race because there is heavy rain forecast so anything is possible. I'm sure some people will have amended their strategies given what we saw last week in Fuji but we'll find out tomorrow.

"We weren't very strong in that race so we will hope for better here."

Teammate Jarno Trulli struggled for pace in the second Toyota, the Italian finishing down in 13th place.

"This has been a difficult day which started this morning when I had a problem finding grip in the car," he said.

"Straight from the first lap I noticed the balance had changed compared to yesterday and I just couldn't understand how. The more laps I did the worse it seemed to get.

"The wind is stronger today but that didn't really affect things. So this afternoon I was really short of pace and I was just able to make it through the first session but that was it. If we cannot find out the cause of the problem tonight I may have to switch to the T-car tomorrow.

"Of course we are expecting another wet race so that will have a massive effect but I will go out there and push as hard as ever to bring home a result."