Ralf: Not Much Hope for the Race

Williams-BMW driver Ralf Schumacher has admitted that he cannot hope for more than a third-place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix if the Ferrari cars of elder brother Michael and Rubens Barrichello remain reliable in Sunday's race.

Schumacher qualified in third position after making a significant leap forward in performance following the slow times he set during Friday's practice sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya.

But even though his Williams team spent all of Friday working on the race set-up of their cars, Schumacher was cautious over predictions and admitted Ferrari are a class apart.

"Ferrari are nearly a second quicker so there is really not a lot of hope for tomorrow," said Schumacher. "The best we can do is stay where we are, have a good strategy, and then go home with points from here. That is all we can do for the moment.

"We were pretty sure that Barcelona was going to be the most difficult one for us. When we did the test, before Brazil I think, Ferrari were a second quicker than we were and we haven't changed the car, so it is what we had expected."

Schumacher revealed his team had worked on the car "from one end to the other" on the night before the qualifying session because the team had found it difficult to find a good balance even though they have tested in Barcelona so much.

"As it usually is with Barcelona you sometimes come here and everything is different," said Schumacher. "You simply can't test here enough it seems but I think as more rubber came onto the circuit the better it was for us."