Schumacher: Sixth place in Canadian GP qualifying proves F1 credentials

The Haas driver was quick throughout the rain-affected session, and felt afterwards that he could have done even better than sixth.

His Montreal performance came after Schumacher drew critique following his Monaco crash, which was followed by a clean but uncompetitive weekend in Baku.

After claiming an impressive result on Saturday, the German will hence start immediately behind Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

"Obviously, it's nice to have a good result,” said Schumacher. “But it's also something to build on. And, you know, just prove to everybody yes, I am here for a reason.

“I was hoping for more, I think there was more in the car and myself, I just didn't maximise the last set because of traffic and other moments. But in general, very, very happy about qualifying.

“But I think everybody's also cautiously happy about it, just because we still have tomorrow to go for. But overall, I think we've done a good job today, which is good for the team, but also good for us.

Asked by Autosport if he felt he had silenced the critics he said: "Honestly I don't really listen to that. I'm here for a reason, and that's because I love the sport, and love racing.

“And I've proven enough I think in my junior days to have a reason to be here."

Towards the end of Q2 Schumacher was offered the chance to pit and have one lap on fresh tyres, or run three on the tyres he had. He made a decisive choice to stay out and keep lapping.

“I was on a good lap when we talked about it,” he said. “So it was it was definitely the right choice.

“There was a lot of standing water around. So that definitely didn't help the easiness of driving. But I do have to say, I enjoyed it a lot. And I was feeling very comfortable, which I think was displayed in my