Schumacher says his tyre choice was critical to his Spa fightback

The Mercedes driver came out top of a close duel with his team-mate Nico Rosberg late in the race at Spa, taking advantage of soft new tyres as opposed to his rival's harder rubber.

"It was a nice battle," said Schumacher, who had been forced to start at the back after he crashed in Q1 on Saturday. "Obviously I was on the softer tyres compared to him being on the harder tyres. That gave me the edge and the possibliy to overtake because on equal tyres that wouldn't have been possible.

"But we took the risk to take the hard tyres in the beginning and that paid off."

Schumacher was able to navigate his way through the carnage of the opening lap to be running 15th by the end of it - which also assisted his climb through the field on what he admitted was a special day for him in his 20th anniversary grand prix.

"It was an exciting race with lots of bits and pieces flying right after the start. So I was lucky I wasn't in the middle of that one and I was able to avoid this and from there on we had a great strategy.

"The boys did a fantastic job and so well I am happy about the result.

"Certainly I am feeling happy because it is a special weekend for me. It didn't start too well yesterday with the qualifying but luckily it finished great in the race. I had a good feeling already this morning, I have to say, with my wife being here and supporting me. She had said to me already that it was going to be a good race, and, well it turned out to be."