• Chinese Grand Prix

Schumacher disappointed with ninth

Michael Schumacher was not happy with his performance © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
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• Chinese Grand Prix - Qualifying and Final Practice

Michael Schumacher has admitted that his ninth place starting position for the Chinese Grand Prix is below expectations.

Schumacher has been putting on a brave face to his poor start to the season so far. But after qualifying 0.7 seconds off his team-mate Nico Rosberg in Shanghai, Schumacher admitted he was not happy with the balance of the Mercedes.

"I am obviously disappointed about my qualifying," he said. "It didn't really come together today. In certain areas I was just not quick enough and at some corner exits, I struggled a bit with rear end grip. I haven't really found the balance of the car all weekend. It will be tough to be too optimistic for tomorrow from my grid position but then I had some good starts lately and there is always room for lots of things to happen in Formula One races. We can still achieve some good points and I am definitely going to go for it."

Rosberg extracted a good result from the session, qualifying fourth after the team's expectations had been for seventh and eighth on the grid. He said he was surprised to have beaten the McLarens, which will start the race directly behind him.

"Fourth place is quite a nice surprise and I'm very pleased that we seem to have made a step forward this weekend," Rosberg said. "We really got the most out of the car in qualifying and I've worked well with my engineer Jock [Clear] and the team to improve the car and get the set-up right this weekend. We didn't think we would be this far up the grid today as we were struggling in practice this morning compared to the McLarens but to be level with the quickest Ferrari and a bit closer to the Red Bulls is very satisfying. It's a good step for us and we're well placed to have a good race tomorrow."

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