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| © Mercedes |
Michael Schumacher went backwards in his home race at the German Grand Prix after he failed to capitalise from third place on the starting grid to finish seventh.
The Mercedes driver confessed that the result was the maximum that he could achieve although the team was convinced that a three-stop strategy was the best option to go for.
"There are nicer ways to finish a home race than falling back from third to seventh place,” Schumacher said. “I squeezed everything I could out of the car but, unfortunately, that's everything we could manage.
“Before this weekend, we expected to be racing between P5 and P7, and of course fifth place would have been the better option,” the seven-time world champion pointed out.
“I got a decent start and the short battle with Sebastian (Vettel) was fun. After that, unfortunately, there weren't too many highlights, apart from setting the fastest lap, perhaps. However, we couldn't maintain that pace for very long,” he added.
The German manufacturer had hoped that Schumacher could possibly clinch his second podium of the year but admitted that it was nearly half a second a lap slower than the frontrunners at Hockenheim.
“Some of our rivals on two-stop strategies faded towards the end but the drop-off was not sufficient for our drivers to be able to take advantage on fresher tyres,” observed team principal Ross Brawn.
Teammate Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes some respite after he climbed from 21st on the grid to finish tenth and earn the final point.