• German Grand Prix - Qualifying

Schumacher says he maximised potential

Michael Schumacher had hoped for more in front of his home fans © Sutton Images

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• News:
• Vettel snatches dramatic pole in Germany
  

• Race:
• German Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg
• |
• Michael Schumacher

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Michael Schumacher said he achieved the best result he could after qualifying 11th on the grid at the German Grand Prix.

Schumacher had been eyeing a top five grid position after practice on Friday but said that he simply was not able to break into the top ten on Saturday.

"There isn't much more to say about qualifying other than the result was what was achievable for us today," he said. "Clearly it was disappointing because we had expected to be able to fight for fifth or sixth place but from the difference between our two cars, you can see our results are what the potential was.

"If I want to find something positive, it is that at least I will be starting from the better side of the grid and in the end, I prefer 11th to 10th place because of that. I had some issues with my brakes during qualifying but I do not rate that a real factor for the performance today. We are a bit stronger in race pace than in qualifying but we clearly wanted to achieve more for our fans. Let's hope that tomorrow the race will develop in a way that we can still show them something."

Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who qualifued 9th, said the problem stemmed from struggling to find a balance with the new updates on the car.

"I was hoping for a strong weekend here in Hockenheim in front of our fans but unfortunately I struggled a lot in qualifying today," he said. "It's really disappointing and it seems that we are just not making our developments work as well as we hoped this weekend which we need to look into.

"I hope that we find the problem with the car otherwise it is difficult to explain why we are not closer to the front. I had a lot of oversteer and that made it really difficult as I had to keep coming down on the front wing levels which did not help. I will do my best tomorrow to achieve a good result but it will be difficult from this position."

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