Schumacher: It's closer than it looks

Schumacher points out that his first-on-the-road position restricted him to eighth position today, and predicts that he will be in a position to fight for the front row on Saturday.

"The early runners in qualifying were slightly disadvantaged, especially after the rain which fell in the morning, which meant the track was a bit dirty and lacked grip," said Schumacher. "This goes some way to explaining my time and position. However, if you look at the times set by Rubens [Barrichello] and Ralf [Schumacher], it is clear that the situation is very close between us and our main rivals.

"As expected, we look competitive. This morning in the dry, I was quite happy with the performance of the car, even though the rain meant we cannot draw too many conclusions about set-up. Hopefully, we can all run in the same track conditions tomorrow and have a good fight for the front row."