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Fry jumps to Schumacher's defence

Nick Fry has jumped to Michael Schumacher's defence © Sutton Images

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Mercedes GP CEO Nick Fry has jumped to the defence of Michael Schumacher following yet another disappointing race for the seven-time world champion in Canada.

Schumacher has been consistently outperformed by young team-mate Nico Rosberg in the majority of grands prix this season with Rosberg already 40 points clear of his illustrious countryman.

But Fry is convinced Schumacher is improving and remains optimistic the best is yet to come from the German in 2010.

"Michael has continued to improve and it's been a fascinating experience inside the team to see the evolution of Michael," Fry told Reuters. "Obviously he was a bit rusty when he started at the beginning of the year and every race he grows in confidence.

"The nice thing is how well he's fitted into the team. I think we've got a very harmonious team attitude and approach and he's contributing towards that. The guys absolutely love him and I'm optimistic for the future."

Fry added that the team is very pleased with the performance of both drivers, and that he was surprised by the criticism Schumacher received after the Canadian Grand Prix.

"The drivers I think have both done an excellent job despite what I understand has been said about Michael. It's not something I or any of us would subscribe to. He's been an absolutely fantastic team member, he and Nico [Rosberg] work very closely together, he pushes the team very hard and he's a great influence on the team.

"We thought he drove a pretty good race [in Montreal] and I was somewhat surprised to hear that he got a bit of a pasting because that certainly wasn't our view."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.