Rubens: Don't discount Schu

"I was shocked when I saw the spin," Rubens admitted. "You don't see things like that very often from Michael. I think he will still be right up there in the race, but winning it will be a little more difficult."

Schumacher lost the rear end of his Ferrari going into Turn 1 on his qualifying lap, entering a stretch of track that he had already labelled the most difficult on the Shanghai circuit.

"You can try so many different lines through Turns 1 and 2 that it is quite difficult to choose," the Brazilian said. "My lap was quite good and I'm quite happy with it. I think we are strong in sector 2 as well as sector 1, but I had a bit of graining through sector 3, where I lost a little bit of time."

Barrichello denied any great concerns about potential tyre problems in the race though. "People think that we might have a problem with the Bridgestone graining," he said, "and although I did have some in the final sector of my qualifying lap, as the weekend progresses and more rubber goes down, the graining phase is getting less, so the problem is reducing."

Kimi Raikkonen, second on the grid to Barrichello, said that his Michelins were strong and that he was confident of another strong race for McLaren.