Ralf happy with best season result

The German driver, who has been struggling for competitive form this year, also outqualified his Toyota teammate Jarno Trulli for the first time in 2007.

"This is my best qualifying result of the year so I am happy with what we have achieved," said Schumacher. "Both the test a fortnight ago and yesterday's practice session went well. The car seems to suit me better here this weekend and I can just do what I want with it so I am happy.

"We were relatively quick in the race in Magny-Cours so I naturally hope that can continue tomorrow. First we must concentrate on making a good start. I'm on the dirty side of the grid which is not perfect but we will take it from there.

"It's been a difficult season but the whole team has kept working very hard - both at the race tracks and at the factory. We know what we want to achieve and we are pushing so I'm sure we can turn the corner. To have both cars in the top ten means that we have a chance to score points which we really need."

Teammate Trulli completed a good day for the Japanese squad, also qualifying in the top ten. The Italian is also looking to score points tomorrow.

"To make it into the top ten was a good qualifying result for me considering how things have gone all weekend," he said. "I have been struggling with the set-up and I have really found it hard to get hold of the car. We tried to improve the set-up this morning but we didn't succeed.

"It seems that whatever I tried to do I would be slow. So this was about as much as I could manage today. We are still in a good position for the race so we will see what we can do to improve things for tomorrow. Now I just hope to make the finish and see if we can score some more points."