Schumacher rues mistakes for loss of win.

Mistakes at crucial moments and unforeseen circumstances were the reasoning behind Michael Schumacher's failure to convert his undisputed pace around the Istanbul Park circuit into victory at the Turkish Grand Prix, the German instead settling for third.

At times looking peerless through practice and qualifying, Schumacher was big favourite to romp away with victory come race day but instead finds the gap to Fernando Alonso instead climbing back up to 12 points following a series of frustrating problems prevented him from fulfilling his potential.

Indeed, Schumacher admitted his problems could be traced back to his mistake in qualifying that left him second on the grid and just ahead of the fast starting Fernando Alonso. An aggressive start that saw Schumacher dive across the circuit to block the Spaniard saw him forced to let team-mate Felipe Massa move into the lead as he held onto second.

With the team gearing up to swap the drivers round at the pit stop, their plan was scuppered when the safety car was deployed to remove Vitantonio Liuzzi's stalled Toro Rosso from the exit of turn one. With Schumacher forced to wait behind Massa for his fuel and tyres, Renault wasted no time in maximising their opportunity, getting Alonso back out in front in a move that could prove pivotal to the championship outcome.

From here on in, Schumacher was playing catch up, losing considerable time when he had a moment at turn eight and lost some four seconds. Furthermore, graining on his Bridgestone tyres in the second stint saw him slip further back behind his rival.

Nonetheless, Alonso himself had problems in the final stint, allowing Schumacher to catch up, although it was not enough for him to make anything more than a feigned look over a tense final few laps, eventually shadowing the Renault across the line by less than a tenth, despite almost certainly having the quicker car.

"Obviously, this weekend things did not go my way, either yesterday in qualifying or today in the race," he admitted. "For some reason, in the second stint, the car was not going as well as it had done in Friday's free practice. It was rather nervous and the fact that it had a pretty heavy fuel load certainly didn't help and neither did my mistake at Turn 8 on lap 28.

Ross Brawn was rather sanguine about Schumacher's weekend, blaming the awkward moment for the safety car to be deployed as ruining the team's chances to take a 1-2 finish and ultimately move into the lead of the constructors' standings.

"However, it was frustrating that the Safety Car came out at a time that really did affect Michael's race badly, because today, our cars were fast enough, the Bridgestone tyres were very good and I think that we could have finished first and second.

"We then tried to recover the situation for Michael, but for some reason which we will need to look into, we picked up some blisters on his second set of tyres and he was unable to push in the middle stint, when of course it was crucial to close down the gap to Alonso. However, we remain confident: all the elements are in place for us to win both titles and we will fight right to the very end to achieve that."

Indeed, Schumacher too was rather critical of his Bridgestone tyres, claiming that they were not performing as well over a race distance as they have done over the weekend. Nonetheless, Schumacher is retaining optimism that he can still gain the upper hand over Alonso over the final four races of the season.

"On top of that, the set of tyres in this stint did not perform as well as the others and they also blistered. In the end I tried to stick with my rival in case he made a mistake. Today, I have lost two points in the Drivers' championship but I still believe I can win the title."