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BUDAPEST, Hungary - Michael Schumacher conceded on Saturday that his Mercedes team was just not fast enough to be competitive in this weekend's 2012 Hungarian Formula 1 GP.
After the team's worst showing of the season in qualifying, Schumacher, 43, will start 17th position, four places behind team mate Nico Rosberg.
'A TOUGH DAY'
Schumacher's flying lap was compromised by dust left on the track by Williams driver Pastor Maldonad, but the seven-times World champion said that mattered little and he was unlikely to have done much better.
Schumacher said: "It was quite a tough and difficult day for us. We have to see that we did not have the pace to be at the front. I could have done a faster lap probably, without the dust having been brought to the track by Maldonado, but then I still do not think it would have brought me into Q3.
"You have to accept the gap is quite big. We know the combination of track layout and temperature does not suit us too much and we will try to make the best out of it on Sunday."
Rosberg said the team needed to look at why the Mercedes were so slow and hoped that prioritising his race set-up during qualifying would help him on Sunday.
"That was a difficult qualifying for us today," he added. "We need to analyse why it turned out like that. Qualifying is always a compromise and I was focused on finding a good race set-up for Sunday as we may have more tyre degradation on our car than others but it was still disappointing not to make Q3 by two-tenths."
Stay with Wheels24 for the 2012 Hungarian F1 weekend.
After the team's worst showing of the season in qualifying, Schumacher, 43, will start 17th position, four places behind team mate Nico Rosberg.
'A TOUGH DAY'
Schumacher's flying lap was compromised by dust left on the track by Williams driver Pastor Maldonad, but the seven-times World champion said that mattered little and he was unlikely to have done much better.
Schumacher said: "It was quite a tough and difficult day for us. We have to see that we did not have the pace to be at the front. I could have done a faster lap probably, without the dust having been brought to the track by Maldonado, but then I still do not think it would have brought me into Q3.
"You have to accept the gap is quite big. We know the combination of track layout and temperature does not suit us too much and we will try to make the best out of it on Sunday."
Rosberg said the team needed to look at why the Mercedes were so slow and hoped that prioritising his race set-up during qualifying would help him on Sunday.
"That was a difficult qualifying for us today," he added. "We need to analyse why it turned out like that. Qualifying is always a compromise and I was focused on finding a good race set-up for Sunday as we may have more tyre degradation on our car than others but it was still disappointing not to make Q3 by two-tenths."
Stay with Wheels24 for the 2012 Hungarian F1 weekend.