Schumacher Predicts More Struggle

The Ferrari driver, who was the fourth man to jump onto the track, finished down in 11th place.

With overtaking almost impossible on the winding street circuit, Ferrari's seven-times World Champion faces a frustrating weekend.

The German, without a win for six races, lapped two and a half seconds slower than pole setter Kimi Raikkonen.

Schumacher is expecting more frustration in tomorrow's session.

"This was definitely not a good session for us and obviously I am disappointed," he said. "We know we are not so good when it comes to our one lap performance and the fact that I went out quite early in the session meant the track was very slippery and so it was even more of a handicap.

"Tomorrow's qualifying will probably be the same situation, with little chance to improve. However, in race trim the car is much better and we will have to see what strategy we can come up with to make the most of that fact. In general terms, we just have to keep working hard to improve."

The German driver was outqualified by teammate Rubens Barrichello, 10th quickest.

The Brazilian also predicted Ferrari will struggle in Sunday's qualifying, but was hopeful for the race.

"I had a good start to my lap, the balance of the car was reasonable, but the fact I did not make a run on new tyres this morning meant I did not have a feel for them straight away," Barrichello explained.
 
"We knew we would be struggling particularly here at Monaco with our one lap performance - a problem that has been with us all season.

"This is not a problem that we can sort overnight, even if the work we have done has seen us improve by tenths of a second at a time. But this is not a disaster: I have won with Ferrari in the past, I have lost with Ferrari in the past and we will win again.

"I don't think we can improve much in second qualifying, but we know that in the race, after fighting for grip on the opening lap, we will have a strong package."