Schumacher says fourth place was possible at Silverstone

Schumacher made contact with Kamui Kobayashi early in the race after overshooting a corner, damaging his front wing and also receiving a drive-through penalty.

Despite that, Schumacher put on a solid performance to finish in the points in ninth position.

The Mercedes driver admitted the accident was his fault, and was sorry he could not give his team a better result.

"My result today is a bit of a shame, and of course I am not happy about it," said Schumacher. "I think fifth or even fourth place would not have been out of question today thanks to the superb job the guys back in Brackley and Brixworth have done.

"I would so much have wished to bring them some decent points this evening when we go back to the factory for a BBQ with their families. But unfortunately, and due to my fault, I cannot.

"Having used DRS for the first time in the race, I was arriving at the corner with over-run. Underestimating the effect, my braking was not good and this is how the collision happened.

"It was right to get a penalty but why it had to be a stop-go, and not a drive-through penalty, I would like to understand better as I felt it was too hard. Anyway, the good thing is that step-by-step, the hard work of our team is paying off more and more, and this is a good feeling heading towards our next home race."

Nico Rosberg finished in sixth position after a solid day for Mercedes, the German hoping his team can continue moving forward.

"I'm pretty pleased with our result this weekend," said Rosberg. "First of all because in qualifying we had the potential to be in the top five, and secondly we had a really good strategy in the race. My start was not good, so being able to eventually finish in sixth place is a nice result for us.

"And hopefully it's the start of an upward trend, before our next home race in Germany, so I'm looking forward to confirming our performance at the Nurburgring. In the next few days, we will analyse the whole weekend with our new developments on the car, and will work hard on improving it even further."