Ralf welcomes unexpected point

The German driver, who had failed to make it to the second qualifying segment for the third race in succession, was one of the drivers to benefit from the chaotic race to gain several positions, moving forward from 18th on the grid.

Schumacher went on to finish in eighth position for his second point of the year.

"That was another difficult weekend for me but of course it is nice to get a point after starting from 18th position," said Schumacher. "I'm sure no one expected that but it was a chaotic race. Today given our grid position we fuelled up the cars heavily for the first stint.

"The car was not too bad and we were able to make up ground but we were short of straight line speed so it made it hard to overtake into the chicane. Towards the end I was overtaken by Sato who was on the prime tyre when I was on the options. That was clearly the worse tyre today but the rules mean we have to run on it.

"We obviously have a lot of work ahead of us but at least we got a point today."

Teammate Jarno Trulli retired from the race on lap 59 when he crashed into the wall as he was leaving the pits.