After what the 41 year-old termed a "frustrating" weekend, culminating in his 10th place in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, more than a few paddock-goers were enjoying some schadenfreude at the German's expense.
Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug moved to batten down the hatches, describing the seven-time champion as "an institution" and suggesting there might have been something wrong with his car. "Give us a chance to look at that and we can come up with a good explanation," Haug said. Time, though, is a currency in short supply as far as Schumacher is concerned.
Related ArticlesHamilton admits rift with fatherDC's guide to ShanghaiVettel takes pole in ShanghaiVettel takes pole in ShanghaiSchumacher disappointed with qualifyingJenson Button aims to show perfect combination of Brawn and brainsHe has now been out-qualified and outperformed by his team-mate Nico Rosberg, who moved to second in the championship with his third place yesterday, in every race so far this season and the prevailing mood is turning from intrigue to pity.
Funnily enough, there was much to enjoy in Schumacher's performance yesterday. He showed he still enjoys a racer's instinct – his early duel with the much faster McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was particularly thrilling – and it looked for a time as if he would claim eighth place, an improvement on his starting position of ninth, only for Red Bull's Mark Webber and Ferrari's Felipe Massa to pass him late on.
But a bad decision to switch to intermediates early in the race cost him, and it was clear he struggled with the car's set-up all weekend.
"It is one of those races that you call frustrating," he said. "All weekend it didn't work out for myself. There were some good emotions. I had a nice battle with Lewis at some point, some nice kissing to each other. But there were too many bad emotions."
The final insult came when Hamilton was asked if his duel with Schumacher, a winner of 91 grands prix, had been a highlight for him. "Jenson says 'tell the truth'," Hamilton replied coolly. "The truth is it's just as exciting racing with any other driver." The aura has now slipped beyond doubt.
Meanwhile, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it would be wrong to read too much into yesterday's results. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber placed sixth and eighth respectively, having locked out the front row in qualifying, and the Australian admitted his team were "blown away" by the pace of the two McLaren cars and struggled in the wet.
Horner, though, said he was confident the speed was still there. "I think you can't read too much into today. Yesterday
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