• Canadian Grand Prix

Schumacher concerned track conditions could get worse

Michael Schumacher is worried about how his tyres will hold up © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg
• |
• Michael Schumacher

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Michael Schumacher is concerned that rain over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend could make the problems with tyre graining in Friday's practice even worse.

Almost all the drivers complained that their tyres were forming balls of rubber on the surface, which reduced the contact patch and made the car's slide. The problem stems from a slippery track surface that means the tyres have to work even harder to maintain grip. Schumacher is concerned that overnight rain could wash away the rubber the cars have already put down on the track and make the situation even worse for qualifying and the race.

"The main focus this afternoon was to get the tyres together," he said after practice. "The track is pretty green with not much rubber which means the tyres are getting a hard time and everybody was struggling with graining. If it rains, the track will remain green and it will probably be difficult to hold the tyres together again, even the harder compound. For tomorrow, it is difficult to predict what we will be able to achieve. My feeling is that we will perform according to our expectations which is around the third quickest of the teams."

Schumacher's team-mate Nico Rosberg finished Friday afternoon's practice session third fastest and said Mercedes had reason to be confident.

"I'm generally pleased with the progress that we made today although conditions were difficult because it was very slippery out there on the track," he said. "We made some good set-up changes to help the car around this circuit and spent a lot of time working with the tyres to understand their performance. The soft option tyre was particularly difficult and we were struggling a little there, like many teams. But overall it was a good start and we have a lot of information to look at tonight before qualifying."