Schumacher believes wet weather could help Mercedes at Silverstone

Fresh from his top three finish in Valencia a fortnight ago, Schumacher believes that likely rain will be a help at Silverstone - with his Mercedes W03 not expected to be particularly well suited to the demands of the Northamptonshire circuit.

"It is certainly an opportunity, that is clear," said Schumacher about the prospect of rain. "It is more an opportunity than having a clear dry race for us.

"If we go back to Malaysia where it was wet, we didn't look too strong, but we understood the reasons for it as much as we understood in Australia in the dry race why we had not been strong. So it will be a good opportunity to prove ourselves - therefore I welcome a bit of rain at the right moment of time."

Although Schumacher seemed quite calm immediately after grabbing a podium in Valencia, the first since he returned to Formula 1, he was actually buzzing about the achievement when speaking about it on Thursday.

"Naturally after a certain [number of] unlucky races it was a nice boost for everybody, in particular for the boys who work on my car, to taste the champagne," he said.

"That is why I was not spraying too much around, because I wanted to leave some for the guys, and make them drink it rather than spray too much.

"It was a beautiful feeling, on top of the way it happened because for a third of the race we looked out of the points and not really in a position to have a decent result.

"Then things turned around and went in our favour, and the car was strong. The tyres held together, and at that point of time it was beautiful catching up and going forward step by step."