Mixed reviews for ‘creeping’ Schumacher

“Thanks to the Schumacher comeback,Germany was back in a Formula One rush,” commentator Matthias Bruegelmann wrote. “But the hangover is heavy,” he added,writing that Schumacher and Mercedes must work hard to catch up.

Fernando Alonso won the race for Schumacher’s former employer,Ferrari. The BZ tabloid headlined its Schumacher story: “Red Goddess steals Schumi’s show.”

The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung captioned its front-page picture of Schumacher with the words “third-best German” — a reference to the fact he finished behind Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

Still,reviews were mixed. The daily Berliner Kurier wrote that the 41-year-old is “top-fit and can easily keep up with the whippersnappers.” Schumacher was “better than the world champion,” Jenson Button,said Berlin’s Tagesspiegel.

Schumacher himself accentuated the positive. “All in all I have to say: I am very,very happy and proud about how it went,considering I was completely out for three years and did not have a lot of driving for preparation,” he said on his website.

“It would be strange to assume that I would come in,sit in the car and drive circles around the others,” he added. “I,for my part,did not assume that in any case.”

Schumacher said that,physically,“this race was not at all difficult for me and I was not exhausted at all.”