Raikkonen Aims for Stronger Sunday

"Obviously we would prefer to be on the front row, but there is still another qualifying session," said the McLaren driver, who scored his maiden Grand Prix victory at Sepang two years ago.

"We are not far away from the leaders and the car feels good, so let's see what we can do tomorrow. It's obviously hot driving the car but it's not too much of a problem as I get used to it."

Raikkonen, who scored just one point at the Australian Grand Prix, finished in fourth place, 0.257 seconds off the pace set by Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya wound up seventh quickest after struggling with the handling of his car during a big part of his flying lap.

"My lap was OK to begin with, but then the rear of the car just started to slide on the entry into the corners and it became difficult," said Montoya. "I didn't finish the last part of the lap as well as I would have liked which cost some more time especially at turn 14 when I understeered into the corner.

"We changed the tyre pressure slightly before this session so that might be the cause. However so far so good. We will see what we can do to improve our starting position in tomorrow's qualifying."