Schumacher Hopes for Competitive Race

World Champion Michael Schumacher is confident of fighting back from a poor qualifying position in tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix.

Ferrari driver Schumacher, aiming to become the first driver to win the same Grand Prix seven times on Sunday, hoped for improvement when fuel loads will also become apparent after finishing down in sixth position in today's qualifying.

Schumacher's brother Ralf scored his first pole position of the season, the Williams driver finishing over a second ahead of Michael.

"On the one lap, we saw all weekend that we were a little bit too slow, or actually quite a bit too slow," said Schumacher, who starts alongside the Renault of Spaniard Fernando Alonso. "In the race we assume that we'll be quite a bit more competitive.

"It's my worst qualifying performance of the season but I've won races from lower positions," added the champion, who had started five of the previous races on pole.

Ferrari's teammate Rubens Barrichello will start the race from seventh place.

"It was a bit of a complicated day," said the Brazilian. "This morning I took a kerb differently to usual and the car bottomed out hard enough to damage the chassis. The mechanics then did a fantastic job to refit my engine into the spare car, which meant I was able to get out on track again for the second part of the fourth session.

"The new car is handling pretty well, but my lap was not perfect. I actually made a mistake at Turn 6 which probably cost me at least half a second. But I remain confident for tomorrow because the car is very competitive in race trim."