Happy Ralf says there's still work to do

The German, however, has warned Toyota still need a lot of work before being close to the top teams.

"You can image we are all very happy with what we achieved today," said Schumacher, who finished third despite a drive-through penalty.

"The drive-through was my mistake. I didn't hit the pitlane limiter, but I was lucky and we achieved more than we expected this weekend.

"I think we had a good result today but we are far away from the top teams I would guess," he added. "So we have to work but I have no doubt the crew will be able to do that so I am looking forward to the next race."

Toyota had a poor start to the season in Bahrain and Malaysia, as they struggled to find enough grip to be competitive with their TF106.

Lots of work and a new tyre by Bridgestone helped the team make a big step forward in Australia, although they were still off the pace of the leading teams.

Schumacher was happy to see his team were not the only ones having problems with their tyres.

"I thought we only had the warm up problems this weekend but it looked like Button struggled and Nick (Heidfeld) went off and I could get by, and that got me another position with all the backmarkers between us it was a bit of a fight.

"But we got through and finished third, it was great."

Schumacher's teammate Jarno Trulli retired from the race after an incident on lap two.