Schumacher aiming for third row

BARCELONA, May 20, 2011 (AFP) - Michael Schumacher will be aiming for a place on the third row of the grid at this Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion finished the opening day at the Circuit de Catalunya seventh fastest behind his Mercedes team-mate and German compatriot Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes have brought significant upgrades with them to Barcelona, and Schumacher, 42, was pleased with the increased performance of his car and believes he now has the pace to qualify inside the top six.

"We have had quite a reasonable Friday and have clearly demonstrated an upwards tendency with our improvements seeming to work well.

"Saying that, the other teams have improved too, so without having had a chance to look deeper into the data, I would say that we may be fighting for the third row. We will continue to work further on our performance for tomorrow."

Rosberg who qualified third in Istanbul, suggested he did not show his true pace on Friday because of the tactics of the team and the windy conditions. He said: "Of course, it's difficult to say where we really are because the hard tyres didn't work so well today and it was very windy.

"However, we had a nice long run and our preparation with the car is certainly better compared to the last race. The updates are working quite well so far, so thanks for that to the boys in the factory."

"I think in general it was decent - we did some good testing, concentrating more on high fuel, that's why maybe we're not quite so high up in the order, and we learned something, so that's the main thing."