• Belgian Grand Prix

Schumacher happy with fifth on 'special day'

ESPNF1 Staff
August 28, 2011 « Vettel admits to tyre concerns | »
Michael Schumacher fights his way through the field © Getty Images
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Michael Schumacher said he woke up with a 'good feeling' about the Belgian Grand Prix after a storming drive from the back of the grid ended in a fifth place finish on the 20th anniversary of his grand prix debut.

Schumacher endured a disastrous start to qualifying after his rear wheel detached from his Mercedes on his out lap, meaning he had to start from the back of the grid. But having gambled on starting on the harder compound an avoiding a first corner melee, Schumacher stormed through the field to finish an impressive fifth on what he described as a 'special day'.

"At least something has worked out this weekend," said Schumacher. "It was an exciting race, lots of bits of pieces flying at the first corner at the start so lucky I wasn't in the middle of that one and was able to avoid it. From there on we had a great strategy, the boys certainly did a fantastic job so I am happy about the result.

Schumacher then enjoyed a fight to the finish with team-mate Nico Rosberg and for once this season, the more experienced German came out on top.

"It was a nice battle, obviously I was on the softer tyres compared to him being on the harder tyres which gave me the edge and gave me the possibility to overtake because on equal conditions that wouldn't have been possible. So we took the risk to take the hard tyres at the beginning and it paid off.

"Certainly I am feeling happy because it is a special day for me, a special weekend which hadn't started too well yesterday with the qualifying and 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 and she sort of mentioned to me already that it is going to be a good race and it turned out to be!"

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