Michael Schumacher put in a brilliant lap in the dying minutes of this afternoon’s wet qualifying session here on the Shanghai International circuit to ensure that he started tomorrows Chinese Grand Prix inside the top ten, securing the sixth best overall time of the day to start from row three on the grid. It was a very tough afternoon for the seven time world champion but he is still confident of a strong result here tomorrow afternoon.

“We did the best we could in these conditions as our chances were damaged by the rain and sixth was the best I could do,” Michael said. “You could call it a damage limitation operation. We still have the race ahead of us and from the third row of the grid, we can still aim for a good result, given that in the dry, we have proved to be very competitive. This qualifying session has not compromised my chances of winning the world championship. Apart from tomorrow’s race, there are still two Grands Prix to go and everything is still possible.”

Meanwhile, teammate Felipe Massa failed to make into the final top ten shoot out and qualified thirteenth. Adde to that, the Brazilian driver will have to undergo a ten place grid demotion due to an unscheduled engine change, meaning that he will now be forced to start from the back row of the grid…

“This was definitely not a good day,” he said. “First off, I was starting with the handicap that I would be penalised with a ten place drop down the grid after the engine change and then the weather conditions certainly didn’t help me. Obviously we are hoping that we won’t have a wet race tomorrow, otherwise we will struggle. However, in the dry, the car is good and if those are the conditions we race in, then I can still hope to finish in the points.”

“This was a very difficult qualifying session because of the weather conditions that did not suit our package. Michael drove exceptionally well and sixth place is the best he could do. We have limited the damage but of course it is disappointing that we are unable to exploit the potential at our disposal, given how things went in this morning’s free practice,” added Jean Todt. “Felipe also did his best, but because of his engine change, he will have to start from the back of the grid. However, one should never forget that the final word of a Grand Prix comes only on Sunday afternoon, after the race. Apart from the usual parameters – reliability, strategy, tyre performance, team work and driver performance – we will also have to take into account how the weather situation evolves.”

“A great performance from Michael on a day when the rain made life very difficult for us,” said Ross Brawn. “Compared with the race in Budapest, we along with Bridgestone have made progress in these conditions, but still not enough to be competitive compared to the best teams running different tyres to us. A shame as in this morning’s dry free practice we saw that our package worked really well. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for only a slight chance of rain for the period of the race: honestly we have to keep our fingers crossed and hope it turns out to be accurate!”