• Spanish Grand Prix

Schumacher happy with improved Mercedes

Michael Schumacher says the car is doing what he wants it to do © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Michael Schumacher

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Michael Schumacher said he was feeling a lot more comfortable with his revised Mercedes after outpacing team-mate Nico Rosberg in both practice sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday.

Schumacher, who finished third fastest in both sessions, says the car is finally doing what he wants it to do.

"It's certainly feeling a lot more a race car into my hands than at least in China," said Schumacher. "China we obviously haven't fully understood exactly, but nevertheless I'm feeling comfortable in the car. That's what I'm asking to do, if we can work very well with my engineers, my team. Obviously the improvement to the car certainly helps.

"It's not about confidence, it's simply that the car goes where I want it to go and I don't have to wait too long to go to this point!"

Despite his renewed cause for optimism, the seven-time world champion refused to comment on whether this was the start of a big things to come.

"I don't think we want to get into any kind of detail analysis now. The clear trend is there. We have improved certainly. I have more ability to work the car to my needs. That's what it is; that's what I look for. The team has reacted very good, and now we look forward to make the best out of this.

"The matter of fact is with the car we have right now, we certainly have the ability to work it a lot more in directions that I'm looking for. That simply was not possible before. So I'm feeling a lot more confident in what the car is doing to me. Again, it sort of confirmed that China, whatever glitch it was, but something didn't work out for whatever reason, and that works back to a more normal situation."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg had a tougher day, finishing sixth in the morning session and seventh in the afternoon. He said that it was not the car that was at fault but his set-up.

"It was a challenging day for me today and not where I usually end up after the Friday practice sessions," said Rosberg. "There are no obvious issues on the aero package but we went wrong on the set-up whilst trying something new. I am confident that we will make progress overnight and tomorrow we will be able to extract the full potential from the car."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.