Michael Schumacher completely surprised with podium

With Fernando Alonso emotionally celebrating only his second home win of his career, there was cause for further exultation alongside the Spaniard on the podium as Michael Schumacher had scored his first podium finish since his return to the sport.

This was unbelievably the German’s first podium finish since the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix, which was incidentally the last race which Schumacher won. Eight races into his third “comeback” year, and Michael Schumacher has finally silenced his critics by achieving his 155th career podium.

However, throughout the frenetic closing laps of the European Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher lost count of which position he was in and only knew that he was one position ahead of Mark Webber. Due to the fact that the German and Webber had pitted 16 laps prior to the end of the race, their pace was much greater than the rest of the field who were suffering through extreme tyre wear.

“I didn’t actually think about a podium at all at the end of the race.” Explained the 7-time World Champion. “It was crossing the line that I asked my guys ‘where did we finish?’ I saw Webber’s pit board and close to the end it showed him eighth and seventh and I knew I was one place ahead of that one. And then [the] boys told me ‘that’s third, that’s podium’. I can’t believe that! It’s something I didn’t really expect. You sort of lose count, because I was pretty busy in the last stages of the race, plus Maldonado and Hamilton had their issue.”

After 47 races without stepping onto the podium, Michael Schumacher can now rejoice in the fact that he has finally done so. With the 2012 Mercedes W03 clearly capable of winning races this season, Michael Schumacher’s aim now will most definitely be on taking his 92nd race victory.

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