• Malaysian Grand Prix

Schumacher 'realistic' about Friday times

ESPNF1 Staff
April 2, 2010 « Alonso unconcerned by practice pace | »
Michael Schumacher is 'realistic' about Friday's tmes © Sutton Images
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Michael Schumacher confessed himself happy with his day's work after setting the fifth fastest time in Friday free practice.

"I am quite happy overall with our work today and the practice sessions went very much as we expected," said Schumacher. "We did have a an issue with the brakes this morning so I did not start running right away but once we were out on track, I felt we had good pace."

Despite his cause for early optimism, Schumacher is well aware that there is much work ahead if the team is to catch the early season pace of rivals Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.

"However we have to be realistic about our performance here and we might still be lacking a little compared to the front runners. The good thing is that you can play with the lines a bit to find time as the track here is quite wide. But in the end, as usual, we will have to wait and see how qualifying and the weather evolve."

Team boss Ross Brawn echoed Schumacher's sentiments, stating that he was happy with the day's programme whilst adding that it is difficult to evaluate where they are compared to the competition.

"The two dry sessions have enabled us to complete the majority of the planned programme for Nico and Michael, although the track conditions did change this afternoon following the rain shower," said Brawn.

"The priority today was to evaluate the prime and option tyres. Whilst all of the teams were running different tyre programmes, which makes it difficult to predict our relative pace, we are reasonably satisfied with what we achieved and are looking forward to the challenge of the weekend."

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