Schumacher happy to finish 'chaotic race'

Schumacher finished fourth, despite leading convincingly at one stage. He damaged his car on the kerbs, however, when pushing to make up time on rivals Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) and Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren). They also hit trouble to allow McLaren's David Coulthard through to win.

"The changing weather made for a chaotic race today," said Schumacher, who started on wet tyres and made three pitstops in all. "We could not have predicted there would be two Safety Car periods and in this situation it is just a gamble whether or not it works in your favour at the right time.

"At one point I hit the kerbs, damaging the car quite badly and lost a lot of time because of it. Apparently, on the lap before my last pitstop, some parts started hanging off the car and that was badly affecting its handling. I even thought I might have a puncture. So, all things considered, I think we can be happy with fourth place today. These five points will be important later in the year."