Mercedes boss says premature to write off ‘ever improving’ Schumacher

LONDON - Defending ace driver Michael Schumacher over his poor showing at the Canadian Grand Prix, Mercedes boss Nick Fry has said that the seven time champion was in a good position in the race before his tyre got punctured.

Schumacher qualified at a season-low 13th before the race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he got tangled with Renault’s Robert Kubica, suffering a puncture that forced him into another pit stop a lap after making his first.

Later he escaped punishment from the stewards after a rude push on Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, The Sun reports.

BBC analysts Martin Brundle, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard said that the former drove “appallingly badly” in his “worst weekend since he came back”.

But Mercedes CEO Fry countered: “I’m surprised people have reached those conclusions. He was in a good position until the puncture. But when something like that happens you get out of sequence.”

“We also put him on the option tyre slightly earlier than we maybe should have done, otherwise he would have been able to defend better than he did. But certainly from inside the team we see things in a totally different perspective,” Fry said.

“We don’t really see any significant difference in performance between Nico Rosberg and Michael. One is getting the breaks and the other isn’t at the moment.

“In sport, what goes around comes around. So we’re very comfortable with Michael’s performance and I can’t see any reason why he won’t come good. He continues to improve and he is going make a good job of it,” Fry added. (ANI)