The performance came after it emerged he would not be part of the Ferrari family next year and would have to be dropped by Haas.
Schumacher cruised through the first two parts of Zandvoort qualifying in 12th and 9th place before moving up to eighth in the final session, helped by a hydraulic problem keeping Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin garage.
“Obviously we still have tomorrow [Sunday] so that’s what I’m focusing on now,” said the German when asked by Autosport about his afternoon.
“But so far we’ve been pretty happy with today’s performance. It was a box we wanted to tick, and we definitely ticked it. So today is a good day.
“I feel good, the car is good, especially on this track. We knew we were going to be strong here. And we had to try to be strong here, because obviously we know that Monza is going to be difficult for us.
“So we have to score the points where we can and take everything into account, to make up for the races that maybe don’t work out the way we imagined.”
Mick Schumacher, Haas F1 Team, in the garage
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Although he felt strong all weekend, Schumacher admitted he didn’t expect to reach the top 10.
“I just had really good confidence in the car from the start, the set-up hardly needed any changes, so we definitely started off on the right foot.
“We were quite surprised to be able to get to Q3. I think we saw each other and a lot of teams saw each other equalize in Q1. For us personally, we saw each other in Q2.
“So to overtake some of the other competitors who were apparently faster so far is a good thing, especially on this track, where overtaking is still quite difficult. I’m so looking forward to tomorrow.
Regarding the race, he said: “The long-term pace didn’t seem too bad. I think everyone is going to struggle with tire management.
“It’s obviously a high intensity track for the tyres, especially the surface temperature sometimes seems like a concern. I’m just excited to go out there and see what we can do.”
