Schumacher Blames Wind for Spin

The Ferrari ace lost control of his F2005 at Turn Nine and spun off the track. He subsequently chose to abort his lap and will now have his engine changed before Sunday's race.

"We have been uncompetitive all weekend so far, therefore I had not expected to qualify very well: maybe around seventh place, which would not have been too bad for tomorrow's race," he said.

"Even though we should really be looking for race wins, we could at least have been fighting for points. But, I went off the track and this is the result.

"We had expected Turn 9 to be difficult as the wind had picked up and I thought I had taken this into account, but obviously not enough. In the race, all I can do is push hard and try and do my best.

"It is still important for us to do as well as possible here, to help our chances in qualifying at Monza. After our performance in Hockenheim and Budapest, this weekend is clearly a step backwards."

Schumacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello had slightly better luck after managing to complete his lap - but his form suffered from tyre graining in the final few corners. He qualified 11 th.

"Even though we adopted a conservative approach to qualifying, I was fighting with a lack of grip from the car," explained the Brazilian. "I am confident the tyres will be good for the race, however, in qualifying we had some graining issues, which cost me time in the final sector where I had too much understeer.

"My lap was on the limit of what I could do and for tomorrow I think eleventh place means I can have a good race especially as the car seems to perform better when the tyres are worn than when they are completely new. It's a shame for Michael that he went off."