Mercedes showed strong pace in practice today, and the slight improvement in performance has raised Michael Schumacher's optimism another notch. Following the Turkish Grand Prix, the seven-times World Champion was quick to express his distate with the results, leading to speculation about his motivation to continue in F1.

However, Schumacher has denied any lack of enthusiasm, and says: "...without having had a chance to look deeper into the data, I would say that we may be fighting for the third row."

Earlier in the week, Schumacher dismissed the talk about his future, saying of Turkey: "Even doing that race, I enjoyed part of that race, with the overtaking and the action I had, but then the result I certainly did not enjoy. I had no issues and no problem with anything that is coming up ahead of me now."