Ralf surprised with pace

Schumacher has missed the last six races after fracturing two of his vertebrae in a horrific smash at the United States Grand Prix. But the German says he is back to health and confident of a good race tomorrow.

"I am positively surprised with my result because I didn't expect I would make it into fifth position," he said. "I found it quite difficult to set up the car this weekend and I am still having some difficulties in the first sector. I have ended up in a slightly better place than we were expecting to be, so I am quite happy.

"Anyway, it's good to be back on track after such a long break and especially to be in reasonable physical shape too. I feel very well and I think we are going to have a good race tomorrow."

Team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya has also struggled with his set-up in Shanghai and will start the race down in 10th spot - the Colombian has been promoted one place due to Takuma Sato's demotion following his engine change.

"I must admit I have struggled a lot to find the right set up on this track," he said. "My car is still quite hard to drive and somewhat unpredictable. My qualifying lap wasn't too bad but the handling of the car was not good enough and I could not set a good time. Anyway, it's going to be a long race tomorrow and we'll see what develops."

Techical boss Sam Michael added: "It has been an interesting qualifying session as it was the first one on this new circuit here in China. We had a trouble-free day in terms of reliability. Ralf did a good job for his first qualifying after his enforced absence of six Grands Prix.

"Tomorrow it will be interesting to see what race strategies have been deployed by the different teams and also to see the true picture of the circuit with regards to tyre degradation, brakes and the other normal parameters."