• European Grand Prix - Qualifying

Schumacher takes blame for poor grid position

Michael Schumacher qualified 12th on the grid in Valencia © Sutton Images

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Michael Schumacher admitted a mistake during qualifying for the European Grand Prix prevented him from making Q3 in Valencia.

Schumacher qualified 12th on the grid on Saturday after failing to make the cut for the top-ten shootout for the second time this season. He said the car had the pace to make the top ten but he failed to put a lap together.

"Naturally there is a slight disappointment because I could easily have been in Q3 if you take my sectors - I just didn't manage to put them together," he said. "That is for more self a disappointment because I didn't perform as I'm used to performing. The rest, as you can see, it's so close; it's just unfortunate to be where we are. It offers the opportunity to play a different strategy that you wouldn't have done in another case and we will see tonight and tomorrow whether that makes sense. I have fresh tyres that can help a slight bit, not a big deal, but they will help a little bit. If you look at the last race and where [Sergio] Perez started and where he finished, we hope that we can do something similar."

Schumacher felt fifth place would have been possible had he not made a mistake, but hinted that Mercedes' setup is biased towards race pace over qualifying pace.

"I guess in a realistic situation position five [would have been possible], sort of middle of the pack of the top ten. That would have been possible. There are strong cars around us, but the bigger question is how much have we compromised our car for tomorrow and how much others have done? Track to track it's different because you have a higher or lesser weighting for the qualifying compared to the race and that will be interesting to see tomorrow."

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