Schumacher says Ferrari just too slow

Schumacher missed the final cut of qualifying after failing to set a good enough time to be in the top ten.

The German's second flying lap was hindered when rain began to fall over the Melbourne circuit.

The seven-time champion, however, said rain was not the main problem and claimed Ferrari were just off the pace this afternoon.

"Obviously, we cannot be satisfied with this qualifying," said Schumacher. "In the second part, I used two sets of new tyres, but I did not get the most out of them. Clearly, the few drops of rain did not help just as I was on my second attempt, but the main problem today is that we were just too slow.

"Now we have to find out what happened and try and do something to be quicker tomorrow. Tomorrow, it will definitely not be nice to start from this far back on the grid, but we will try and make the most of the situation."

The Italian team endured a disappointing day, with Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa crashing during the second session. The Brazilian lost control of his car during his flying lap and crashed heavily against the tyre barriers.

He qualified in 16th place.

"What happened was a shame, because I was on a good lap at the time I went off," Massa explained. "I had gone into Turn 11 when I lost the rear of the car. I touched the kerb and I could not correct it in time and that was the end for me. Fortunately, the car was undamaged, which is the most important thing.

"It should have been a good lap, but now we have to accept this situation and do a good race, just as we did in Malaysia."